Sotheby’s kicked off the May marquee auction season with a $433.1 million result from its modern and contemporary art evening sales in New York. The sale was led by Mark Rothko’s painting *Brown and Blacks in Reds* (1957), which sold for $85.8 million from the estate of late dealer Robert Mnuchin, who had purchased it in 2003 for $6.7 million. The auction also saw strong results for works by women artists like Joan Mitchell and ultra-contemporary artists such as Ding Shilun and Yu Nishimura. Separately, the King’s Own Royal Regiment Museum Trust in the UK returned looted artifacts to Ethiopia, including a lock of hair and blood-stained cloth belonging to Emperor Tewodros II, taken during the Anglo-Indian Expedition of 1868.
The Sotheby’s result signals a solid but unexciting start to the auction season, with total sales falling just short of Rothko’s auction record. The strong performance of works by women and emerging artists suggests shifting market dynamics. Meanwhile, the restitution of Ethiopian artifacts highlights ongoing global efforts to return cultural heritage taken during colonial conflicts, and the Yindjibarndi people’s dispute with Fortescue over a $107 million payout underscores the tension between mining profits and Indigenous cultural heritage compensation.