BADEN-BADEN, Germany—Baden-Baden’s Museum Frieder Burda is parting with one of its collection’s most valuable treasures: Mark Rothko’s painting “No. 36 (Black Square),” 1958, which is to be auctioned at Christie’s New York on May 13th. “The decision … has been very carefully considered and hasn’t been easy for someone like myself who has a very personal relationship with all works of the collection,” the museum’s founder, German art collector Frieder Burda said in a statement released by Christie’s earlier this week, calling Rothko’s masterpiece “a solitaire within the collection from which it is hard to separate.”Burda had acquired the painting, that has never appeared at auction before, in 1984. It was featured in numerous museum exhibitions, including Tate Gallery in London, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo or The National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, as well as the major Rothko retrospective at the Fondation Beyeler, in 2001. Featuring three shimmering dark rectangles on luminescent red ground, the painting is considered a prime example of Rothko’s mature style which is also reflected in the estimate of $30 to 50 Million – the most expensive Rothko sold at auction to date, “Orange, Red, Yellow“ from 1961, brought a record eclipsing $86,882,500 at Christie’s New York in May 2012.According to German news reports, Burda, whose family owns one of Germany’s largest publishing empires, is selling the Rohtko canvas to refine the museum’s collection and secure its future operations. Since 2004, the Richard Meier built museum in the small Southern German town of Baden-Baden has been home to Burda’s prestigious collection of predominantly German Expressionism, late works by Picasso and post-war German art. The Frieder Burda museum is one of Germany’s few privately financed institutions and funded by the Frieder Burda foundation that Burda established in 1998.
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