Mark Rothko's executors sold 798 of his paintings to a gallery one of them worked for, and his 19-year-old daughter sued

Mark Rothko killed himself in his New York studio. His will left nearly everything to the Mark Rothko Foundation. His three executors were Bernard Reis, the painter Theodoros Stamos and Morton Levine. A month before Rothko's death, Reis had been made a director, secretary and treasurer of Marlborough Gallery. Stamos was under contract to Marlborough as an artist. On 21 May 1970 the executors signed two contracts with Marlborough covering 798 works: 100 paintings sold for $1.8 million and the rest consigned. Rothko's daughter Kate, 19, sued in 1971. On 18 December 1975 Surrogate Millard Midonick removed the executors, rescinded the contracts and ordered Marlborough to return the 658 paintings it had not sold. He held Reis, Stamos and the Marlborough companies jointly liable for $9,252,000, and Levine for less. Kate Rothko became administrator. An appeal court affirmed in November 1977. Marlborough's head, Frank Lloyd, was indicted for tampering with evidence, stayed in the Bahamas for years, and was convicted on three counts in 1983. His sentence was to fund a scholarship and art programmes for New York students. The foundation, reconstituted, gave its holdings to museums. In 2026 Rothko's children Kate and Christopher control the family holdings; his painting Orange, Red, Yellow sold for $86.9 million at Christie's in 2012.