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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.

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