376:, 43 NY 2d 305 - NY: Court of Appeals 1977. Official Reporter decisions include: 69 Misc.2d 752, 330 N.Y.S.2d 915, affd. 40 A.D.2d 1083, 338 N.Y.S.2d 855; 71 Misc.2d 74, 335 N.Y.S.2d 666, affd. 43 A.D.2d 819, 351 N.Y.S.2d 940; 71 Misc.2d 320, 336 N.Y.S.2d 130, mod. and affd. 40 A.D.2d 965, 338 N.Y.S.2d 854; 73 Misc.2d 548, 342 N.Y.S.2d 220, revd. 42 A.D.2d 558, 345 N.Y.S.2d 567, mot. for lv. to app. dism., 33 N.Y.2d 822, 350 N.Y.S.2d 911, 305 N.E.2d 919; 41 A.D.2d 806, 342 N.Y.S.2d 372; 42 A.D.2d 693, 346 N.Y.S.2d 714; 77 Misc.2d 168, 352 N.Y.S.2d 574, affd. 47 A.D.2d 623, 366 N.Y.S.2d 610, mot. for lv. to app. den. 36 N.Y.2d 647, 372 N.Y.S.2d 1026, 334 N.E.2d 603; 80 Misc.2d 140, 362 N.Y.S.2d 673; 84 Misc.2d 830, 379 N.Y.S.2d 923; affd. 56 A.D.2d 499, 392 N.Y.S.2d 870, affd. 43 N.Y.2d 305, 401 N.Y.S.2d 449, 372 N.E.2d 291; 56 A.D.2d 819, 393 N.Y.S.2d 682; 95 Misc.2d 492, 407 N.Y.S.2d 954, and numerous unofficially reported Law Journal decisions as well as many scholarly articles.
126:
Rothko's death by the estate executors through
Marlborough were not sold to bona fide purchasers, but were instead retained by the gallery which shuffled the sale monies through its accounts in Europe, and which then quickly 're-sold' the works to actual purchasers for 5 to 6 times the value declared by the estate. Many works were sold this way by the Marlborough with the complicity of the executors despite the court's injunction against selling any works while the case was unresolved and still before the courts.
53:
charitable distribution, contents proceedings construing Mark Rothko's will as to the meaning of the "contents" of the family residence willed to his widow and to her estate and later by the widow's will to Rothko's children, and valuation proceedings for valuing the art, assessed costs, fees, and taxes.
159:
should be given to the estate and whether a further discount should be available due to the inter vivos contract for an exclusive agency in favor of
Marlborough Galleries for seven years after death, and finally whether a discount should be enjoyed by the estate for commissions which must be paid for
80:
One year later Rothko died by suicide on
February 25, 1970, leaving an estate consisting primarily but not entirely of 798 of his paintings. Rothko's wife Mary Alice died of a stroke six months after her husband's demise. Rothko's will was admitted to probate the month following his death, naming his
189:
Marlborough A.G.'s founder Frank Lloyd paid a third of the $ 9.2 million award to the Rothko children as a fine against
Marlborough for violating the court's injunction against the sale of any further paintings before a final ruling or settlement. The disgraced Lloyd is not mentioned as active after
121:
and
Liechtenstein as part of an effort to ensure the paintings were undervalued during Rothko's lifetime — in the 1960s this led the artist to vastly underestimate the value of his works, directly resulting in his agreement to consignments of dozens of paintings to the gallery and collectors without
181:
of 1954 (IRS code) for the years 1970 through 1974 in the total amount of $ 18,582,500, and additions to tax under sections 6651 and 6684 for the same years in the respective total amounts of $ 518,125 and $ 2,112,500. Reis' estate (he was dead by that time) lost its summary judgment motion to make
125:
The trial record revealed that the gallery had been stockpiling the undervalued works instead of selling them in order to ensure both a low market saturation and a high
Marlborough inventory, anticipating a heightened value in the market after Rothko's death. Further, the 100 paintings 'sold' after
104:
Following Rothko's death the three executors for the estate agreed to sell 100 works to
Marlborough for a total of $ 1,800,000 while a further 698 works were consigned to the gallery for sale at a fixed commission of 50%, however, the executors paid only $ 200,000 upfront to the estate. In the year
142:
The courts involved in litigating the Rothko matter were faced with many complex issues as part of and beyond the wrongdoing of the
Marlborough group as estate executors. In particular, the valuation of services rendered by counsel were litigated at length; and the valuation of the paintings posed
108:
In 1971 Kate Rothko sued to release the estate from the sale agreement and have the paintings returned to the family. The legal proceedings revealed that when still a struggling artist with a young family, Rothko agreed to a deal with the gallery in which all of his paintings would be sold through
88:
Shortly before his death in 1970, Rothko made gifts to his children of certain key paintings in his possession in an effort to provide his children with financial security, since he believed that key patrons would pay higher prices for the works following his death. However, after Rothko died, his
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revailing counsel have participated in approximately 20,000 pages of transcript of pretrial and trial testimony; thousands of exhibits have been introduced and considered; thousands of pages of briefs have been submitted to this court and to the appellate courts; many decisions were made in this
129:
Ultimately, certain directors at
Marlborough were convicted of defrauding the Rothko family, and in 1975, the court ordered the gallery to pay over $ 9 million in damages and costs, and also ordered the gallery to return 658 Rothko paintings it still held. Marlborough disputed the return of the
185:
Despite
Theodoros Stamos' protestations that he had done nothing wrong, the Tax Court also ruled against him for liability for various self-dealing excise taxes under IRS code section 4941 for the years 1970 through 1976 in the total amount of $ 19,407,500, and additions to tax under sections
52:
contracts with the artist, restoring hundreds of paintings to the artist's estate, removal proceedings to compensate the estate for paintings not returnable to it to the extent of millions of dollars, election proceedings litigating the rights of election by the children against an excessive
47:
The entire Rothko matter involved few litigants, but many counsel, some of them with lengthy professional services over a period from 1971 to 1979. Proceedings included removal of the estate's original executors, setting aside the contracts those executors made with the Marlborough gallery,
93:
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court, pretrial as well as the ultimate disposition; the Appellate Division has ruled on these matters several times; and the Court of Appeals has finally unanimously affirmed the major disposition made in this court, (43 N.Y.2d 305, 401 N.Y.S.2d 449, 372 N.E.2d 291).
116:
It emerged from the proceedings that the estate executors and the gallery defrauded Rothko and his estate through various methods of self-dealing. Among other wrongful acts, the gallery had been filtering payments for Rothko's works through accounts in
155:. The estate is presently resisting a deficiency assessment of large proportions. In litigating that issue there is not only a difference of opinion with respect to the value of the hundreds of paintings in this estate but also whether a
130:
paintings and was able to prevail as to those works it had sold during the proceedings in defiance of the court's orders to the contrary. Those works remained in the hands of collectors, including Rothko's 1953 oil on canvas painting,
85:, a friend and fellow artist represented by Marlborough New York starting in 1971; and Morton Levine, an anthropology professor, unconnected with Marlborough but who had been Rothko's son Christopher's guardian for a short time.
176:
The Internal Revenue Service audited the Rothko Foundation and determined that Mark Rothko's former friend and ex-estate executor Bernard Reis was liable for various self-dealing excise taxes under section 4941 of the
89:
children were notified by the Marlborough's founder, Francis Kenneth Lloyd, that under the terms of the agreement made with the gallery in 1966 and renewed in 1969, the gallery owned all of Rothko's paintings.
76:
corporation with international galleries, which provided in part that he agreed "not to sell any works of art for a period of eight years, except to Marlborough A.G. if a supplementary contract is made."
100:, 1953, oil on canvas. A section of a painting from Rothko's estate; the painting was among those wrongfully sold by the estate executors to Marlborough A.G. in 1970 very shortly after Rothko's death.
143:
complex questions as their valuation affected nearly every other matter facing the court. In 1979 after much of the matter's litigation had already taken place, the court said:
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On September 16, 1968, Rothko executed a two-page will, drafted by and its execution supervised by his friend Bernard Reis, an unlicensed law-school graduate and
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31:; and the directors of his gallery, Marlborough Fine Art. The revelations in the case of greed, abuses of power and conspiracy by financial interests in the
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548:
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39:, the highest court of New York state, as "manifestly wrongful and indeed shocking", serving as a cautionary tale for both artists and their gallerists.
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estate executors: Bernard Reis, who had drafted Rothko's will and who became a Marlborough Gallery New York director the month before Rothko died;
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641:"'Rothko': Sam Taylor-Johnson To Direct Art-World Drama With Russell Crowe, Aisling Franciosi, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, More — EFM Hot Package"
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6651(a)(1) and 6684 for the same years in the respective total amounts of $ 724,375 and $ 2,957,500. Stamos also lost his appeal.
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after Rothko's death, the value of his work more than doubled while early works were selling at auction for over $ 80,000.
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Harrow, Gustave, Reflections on Estate of Rothko: The Role of the Legal Advisor in Relation to the Artist, 26
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147:... he bulk of the estate was and is in the form of hundreds of paintings rather than cash ... and ...
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Harrow, Gustave, The Final Word in the ROTHKO Case: Salient Legal Holdings of the Court of Appeals,
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432:
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A Betrayal The Art World Can't Forget; The Battle for Rothko's Estate Altered Lives and Reputations
72:
Five months later on February 21, 1969, Rothko entered into an agreement with Marlborough A.G., a
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Wellman, Richard V., Punitive Surcharges Against Disloyal Fiduciaries—Is Rothko Right?, 77
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1972 on the gallery history page on Marlborough's website. Lloyd died in 1998 at age 86.
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may not at an early time complete its final determination with respect to date-of-death
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Frank Lloyd, Prominent Art Dealer Convicted in the 70's Rothko Scandal, Dies at 86
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the gallery in exchange for a set monthly fee. Such terms were not unheard of, as
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was the protracted legal dispute between Kate Rothko, the daughter of the painter
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Feldman, Franklin, Marketing Fine Art: Selling the Right Thing the Wrong Way, 1
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Thirteen years after his death, Mark Rothko's tale aired as a television movie:
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The Rothko Case: a Suicide, $ 32 Million in Paintings and an Angry Daughter
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612:, Season 2, Episode 12, May 3, 1983, imdb.com. Accessed Jan. 6, 2013.
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91:
460:, thesundaytimes.co.uk, October 17, 2004. Accessed Jan. 6, 2013.
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551:, 87 TC 1016, Tax Court 1986, 3095-77. Accessed Jan. 6, 2013.
504:
In re Will of Rothko, 351 N.Y.S.2d 940, 43 A.D.2d 819 (1974).
539:, guardian.co.uk, September 14, 2008. Accessed Jan. 6, 2013.
134:, which later sold at public auction for US $ 22.4 million.
492:
Estate of Rothko, 414 N.Y.S.2d 444, 98 Misc.2d 718 (1979).
48:
eliminating the rights of the gallery with respect to its
329:, a film adaptation of Seldes' book, was announced, with
160:
selling many of the paintings by agents of the estate.
65:, leaving all of his residual estate to the non-profit
113:
had had a similar deal with his gallery in the 1920s.
325:, on interviews and the trial transcripts. In 2021,
321:. The filmmakers based their work on the 1978 book,
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696:pp. 336-344. Carolina Academic Press, 2004/2008.
69:which Rothko organized shortly before his death.
765:White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)
815:No. 6 (Yellow, White, Blue over Yellow on Gray)
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755:No. 3/No. 13 (Magenta, Black, Green on Orange)
575:, Marlborough Fine Art. Retrieved Apr 5, 2011.
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441:, 8(24), Dec. 12, 1977. Accessed Jan. 6, 2013.
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395:, November 2, 1998. Accessed Jan. 6, 2013.
431:Burstein, Patricia and Shapiro, Harriet,
584:Seldes, Lee, The Legacy of Mark Rothko,
480:, April 08, 1998. Accessed Jan. 6, 2013.
563:, 87 TC 1451 - Tax Court 1986, 3096-77.
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16:Legal dispute over Mark Rothko's estate
629:, May 3, 1983. Accessed Jan. 6, 2013.
531:The art cheats who betrayed my father
194:Legal and financial concepts at issue
7:
694:Art, Cultural Heritage, and the Law.
122:appreciating his works' full value.
639:Wiseman, Andreas (March 5, 2021).
14:
623:TV: 'Rothko Conspiracy,' A Movie
1027:New York (state) state case law
1017:United States contract case law
549:Estate of Reis v. Commissioner
1:
775:No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red)
687:Communications & the Law
299:Temporary restraining order
284:Joint and several liability
231:good faith and fair dealing
98:No. 2, Blue Red & Green
63:Certified Public Accountant
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680:Cleveland State Law Review
805:No 1 (Royal Red and Blue)
452:Feature: The Rothko files
323:The Legacy of Mark Rothko
37:New York Court of Appeals
875:Untitled (Black on Grey)
149:Internal Revenue Service
1012:Business of visual arts
385:Dobrzynski, Judith H.,
313:a co-production of the
172:Former estate executors
27:; the painter's estate
950:Abstract expressionism
932:Mark Rothko Art Centre
795:No. 61 (Rust and Blue)
561:Stamos v. Commissioner
311:The Rothko Conspiracy,
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35:were described by the
692:Gerstenblith, Patty.
606:The Rothko Conspiracy
520:, 4(2), p. 33 (1978).
179:Internal Revenue Code
145:
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319:Lionheart Television
242:Documentary evidence
220:Conflict of interest
182:the ruling go away.
865:Orange, Red, Yellow
672:Michigan Law Review
353:Art world economics
646:Deadline Hollywood
627:The New York Times
610:American Playhouse
478:The New York Times
450:Appleyard, Bryan,
392:The New York Times
331:Sam Taylor-Johnson
205:Breach of contract
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1022:American painters
999:
998:
845:Four Darks in Red
825:Black in Deep Red
702:978-1-59460-099-9
594:978-0-306-80725-1
405:The Rothko Tangle
215:Warranty of title
157:blockage discount
132:Homage to Matisse
67:Rothko Foundation
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138:Valuation issues
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991:(2009 play)
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957:Color field
739:Mark Rothko
682:573 (1977).
348:Art gallery
333:directing.
278:Inter vivos
238:calculation
119:Switzerland
50:inter vivos
25:Mark Rothko
21:Rothko case
1006:Categories
689:71 (1979).
359:References
343:Art dealer
289:Negligence
280:agreements
273:Injunction
974:(teacher)
972:Max Weber
905:Buildings
746:Paintings
652:March 10,
253:ownership
247:Equitable
33:art world
29:executors
785:Untitled
588:, 1996,
337:See also
259:contract
225:Contempt
942:Related
924:Museums
573:History
305:In film
249:versus
236:Damages
57:Details
43:Summary
915:(1971)
878:(1970)
868:(1961)
858:(1958)
855:No. 10
848:(1958)
838:(1958)
828:(1957)
818:(1954)
808:(1954)
798:(1953)
788:(1952)
778:(1951)
768:(1950)
758:(1949)
700:
592:
438:People
327:Rothko
257:Estate
268:Fraud
698:ISBN
654:2021
590:ISBN
410:Time
317:and
163:...
19:The
988:Red
315:BBC
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608:,
533:,
509:^
497:^
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366:^
731:e
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596:.
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