The Legacy of Mark Rothko

by Lee Seldes

At the time of Mark Rothko's apparent suicide in 1970, the deeply troubled, pioneering artist of Abstract Expressionism was at the height of fame and financial success; yet within months of the funeral, his three trusted friends, acting as executors, relinquished his entire legacy of 800 paintings to the powerful, international Marlborough Galleries (run by Frank Lloyd) for a fraction of their real worth on terms suspiciously unfavorable to the estate. The suit that Rothko's daughter brought against the executors and Marlborough rocked the art world with its shocking revelations of corruption in the international art trade: from the deceptions practiced on Rothko when he was alive to the scandals after his death involving conspiracies and cover-ups, double dealings and betrayals, missing paintings and manipulated markets, phony sales and laundered profits, forgery and fraud.

Genres: Art, Biography, Nonfiction, Art History

403 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The journalist Lee Seldes attended the eight month trial in which the Rothko children, by that time orphans, sued the executors of their father's estate and the gallery which had near-exclusive rights to sell his works. It's a fairly horrifying tale; Mark Rothko's wishes were disregarded and the estate was cheated out of millions of dollars through self-dealing, fraudulent sales of paintings, and painting-laundering. Kate Rothko, Mark's daughter, was only 20 when she initiated the civil suit and her brother Christopher was much younger. Her courage, resilience and patience in seeing the lengthy legal battles through is beyond admirable. She was never in it for the money, but determined to honor her father's legacy. The Rothko children prevailed in the end, but the punishment for Frank Lloyd, the head of the global Marlborough galleries and mastermind of the nefarious schemes, was mere community service.

The amount of biographical material on Rothko is rather minimal. This is a book about Rothko's paintings after his death, and the trial and its aftermath. It is rather dry.

[J.C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

small update to the review 1/24/2024

3 1/2 stars. Loved the writing, it's the only reason I finished. That and hoping for justice for Kate Rothko. The story is long, complex and too detailed. It needed a little streamlining, especially in regards to what the conspirators were doing. Maybe that is asking too much from the author though. Glad I finished, but also glad I didn't work to hard on it (I skimmed through some of it). This should definitely be a miniseries of some sort movie (Rothko goes to Hollywood!). Spend a lot of money on the production design (I need to see the warehouse!!!) and someone find out if Roger Deakins Jeff Cronenweth is a Rothko fan.

Aisling Franciosi from The Nightingale?!?!?! yes please!!

[JRT · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely outstanding depiction of both Rothko travails and the events of his death and the suit , misdealings and outright malfeasance after his death. The window into art treated merely as merchandise , not unknown to me as a very low tier collector and avid observer , greatly expanded my knowledge and understanding of the actual mechanics.
As a lawyer myself, I am in awe of Seldes’s ability to summarize, parse and translate from legalese significant parts of the trial to make them easily understood by non- lawyers and actually entertaining as well as informative, and fashion them into a “plot”.
A worthy effort and a great read even if you have no interest in art.

[Neal Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Takes the lid off underhand dealings and unbridled conflicts of interest in the art world that enabled a dealer to acquire hundreds of Mark Rothko paintings from his estate at a knockdown price. Although Rothko’s daughter was a minor at the time of his death, her determination, and luck in finding an Assistant Attorney General willing to devote himself to the case, finally resulted in some measure of justice.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

The insight into certain aspects of the art world at that time and Rothko’s relationships with other well known artists was fascinating. The middle section dealing with the court case was pretty dense in some chapters, which made it slow for me to get through. Overall would recommend to anyone interested in the art world.

[Leslie Balkany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent recounting of the tragic aftermath of Rothko’s death. Reads like a novel.

[Phokeng Setai · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me close to a year to finish reading this book. I struggled through it. There were a few nuggets here and there that I took from the book, otherwise, it’s quite the plain read.

[Kbrooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating and harrowing page-turner of a read with great writing/reporting by Seldes.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I stood in front of the Chapel paintings at the Tate in London and was terribly moved by those beautiful, haunting paintings. Then I bought the book and after feeling sad, I was angered. Powerful book.

[Joan Schauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probaby will be of interest only to those who absolutely love Rothko's work. Or those who want to learn more about the contemporary art world.