• Gold pocket watch recovered from body of richest passenger on Titanic up for auction

  Business tycoon John Jacob Astor was one of the richest men in the world when he boarded the Titanic in 1912 and was last seen smoking on the bridge as the ship sank, The Telegraph reports...

• Miami Sex Museum opens ‘Desire Machines’ exhibition by Hajime Sorayama  

  The Miami Sex Museum has opened an exhibition called “Desire Machines,” which features a selection of Hajime Sorayama's iconic "sex robot" series of sculptures, as well as 20 previously unexhibited paintings, Hypebeast reports...

• Gustav Klimt painting, thought lost for 100 years, sold at auction for €30M

  The unfinished painting, entitled "Portrait of Fräulein Lieser," was painted in the spring of 1917, a year before the artist's death...

• Ultra-rare Rolex watch sold for record $3.5M

  This watch, introduced in 1942, is one of 12 such models made in the early 1940s. According to the auction house, the watch was originally intended for aviation pilots, but found its niche in the Italian automotive world...

• David Lynch presents ‘Room of Reflection’ installation at Salone del Mobile

  This year, famous director David Lynch was invited to create an installation in the halls of the furniture fair Salone del Mobile—something designed to transport guests to another dimension...

• Christie's to auction designer Vivienne Westwood’s personal wardrobe

  Westwood's husband and creative director of her brand, Andreas Kronthaler, has prepared special looks from her wardrobe that will be presented at two auctions. More than 200 lots will go under the hammer, covering four decades of Westwood’s work, writes Hypebeast...

• Armenian street art artist’s work is shared on Tupac Shakur’s Instagram

  Armenian street art artist’s work, along with other art works, was shared by 2pac’s Instagram, mentioning that the picture was done in Armenia…

• 353 ballerinas dance on pointe shoes, set new world record

  The dance of 353 ballerinas on pointe shoes has set a new world record. Hundreds of young dancers in white tutus and tightly coiffed hair gathered at New York's Plaza Hotel to break the world record for pointe dancing...

Christie's auction house has sold a Mark Rothko painting for more than $100 million in a secret auction.

In an interview with CNBC, Christie's CEO Guillaume Cerutti said the auction house sold the painting in a private sale in January for "more than $100 million." However, Christie's did not provide details.

Art dealers familiar with the deal told CNBC that the painting is Mark Rothko's "No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red)," painted in 1951. It was sold by Russian billionaire and collector Dmitry Rybolovlev, who had purchased the painting for 140 million euros in 2014.

It was acquired by Kenneth Griffin, a hedge fund billionaire and CEO of Citadel. Griffin, a major art collector, declined to comment.

The mysterious nature of the sale, with few public details, underscores the rapid growth in recent years of private sales, a low-profile and secretive corner of the auction world.

In a private sale, the work is submitted for possible sale to an auction house, which approaches its leading clients and acts as an intermediary in the transaction. Private sales have surged since the Covid-19 pandemic as more and more collectors opt for confidential transactions out of the public eye.

Christie's private sales totaled $1.2 billion last year, up 49% from pre-pandemic levels. Auction house Sotheby's reported private sales of $1.2 billion, up from $1.1 billion in 2022.

Follow NEWS.am STYLE on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram