Alberto Giacometti Mark Rothko Warhols Send Sotheby’s Soaring Sotheby's Scores Shattering Stereotypes From Raging Bulls to Miserable Drips New York Sales Preview Rothko Returns to Russia

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Merkin and his wife have arranged to sell their collection of paintings by Abstract Expressionist Mark Rothko, as well as some Alberto Giacometti sculptures, according to legal papers filed Tuesday. An anonymous buyer has agreed to pay $310 million for the artwork, the filing said, but Merkin won’t see any of it. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s lawsuit, filed in April, accuses Merkin of improperly funneling billions to Madoff while misleading clients about where their money was going. Cuomo’s suit wants the art and other assets to compensate Merkin’s many wiped-out investors, and until the suit is resolved, money from the sale will be held in escrow. Unlike Madoff, who's headed to prison for 150 years, Merkin, the former chairman of GMAC Financial Services whose hedge funds lost $2.4 billion in the Ponzi swindle, is not facing criminal charges.

Read more at the Associated Press.