Qatar rulers pay big for artworks

Last year’s mystery buyer of Mark Rothko’s “White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose),” 1950, sold by David Rockefeller and acquired anonymously at Sotheby’s for $72.8 million, has been revealed to be Qatar’s ruling al Thani family. The sale holds the record for the highest price ever paid for a work of postwar art at auction. London’s Art Newspaper reported Sunday that the emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, and his wife, Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al Missned, likewise purchased Francis Bacon’s “Study From Innocent X” for $52.7 million at the same sale.