What Ted and Ruth Baum Collected: Rothko, Ruscha, Mitchell, Klein and a $100 Million Sale at Sotheby's

Sotheby's will bring the collection of Ted and Ruth Baum to auction, a group of works the house has placed at $100 million. At the front of the sale are two paintings, one by Mark Rothko and one by Ed Ruscha, the pair of $15 million pictures around which the rest of the consignment is arranged. The names that follow describe a taste that moved comfortably between the two sides of the Atlantic. From this country there is Joan Mitchell, alongside Ruscha, and from Europe there are Lucio Fontana and Yves Klein. That is a particular kind of eye, one that could hold a Rothko and a Klein in the same rooms and see the conversation between them. For readers who follow what changes hands, this is the sort of single-owner sale that sets the reference points for a season.

With reporting from ARTnews.