Rothko painting sets postwar auction record

The record price for postwar art was broken twice at a Sotheby’s auction in New York this week, first with a Francis Bacon work and later with a Mark Rothko painting.

The 1950 Rothko painting, “White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose),” of blocks of color, sold for $72.8 million Tuesday to an anonymous bidder, Sotheby’s said.

Shortly before, a 1962 Bacon painting of a pope, “Study From Innocent X,” sold to an anonymous bidder for $52.6 million.

The previous record for works composed after World War II was held by a 1977 Willem de Kooning work of swaths of bright colors called “Untitled XXV,” which sold for $27 million at a Christie’s auction in November, Sotheby’s said.