Qatari Ruling Family Revealed as $72.8 Million Rothko Buyers

NEW YORK—The Al-Thani ruling family of Qatar has been revealed as the anonymous buyer of Mark Rothko's White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) (1950), which set an auction record at Sotheby's New York last May for the highest price ever paid for a work of postwar art, the Art Newspaper reports. The Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, and his wife, Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al-Missned, purchased the Rothko for $72.8 million, as well as Francis Bacon's Study from Innocent X for $52.7 million at the same sale.

The couple also purchased Damien Hirst's Lullaby Spring for £9.7 million ($19 million) at Sotheby's London last June, setting an auction record for a work by a living European artist. Their purchases reflect a growing trend of high-end artworks moving from the West to the East, as new collectors in the Gulf region, the former Soviet Union, and China buy works consigned to auction by American and European collectors.