And there were moments of exultation. For years, Bouvier had dreamed of buying Mark Rothko’s “No. 6
(Violet, Green and Red),” an abstract column that the artist painted in 1951, while working at Brooklyn
College. The painting was on the cover of the catalogue raisonné, an official inventory of Rothko’s work, and
had been owned by the Moueix family, a French wine-producing dynasty, for decades. One day, Rybolovlev
saw the image on the catalogue and told Bouvier that he would do anything to acquire the painting. Through
Peretti, Bouvier had been quietly cultivating the Moueix family for years, buying their wine and lesser works
from their collection, in the hope of one day securing the Rothko.
In early 2014, Bouvier learned that they might be willing to sell. Years earlier, he had flown to the family’s
château, in Bordeaux, to view the painting, which was kept in a little-used living room, where the light was
blocked out by heavy curtains. In the early nineteen-fifties, Rothko began experimenting with powdered
pigments, solvents, and egg to lend extra force to the colors in his canvases. He wanted viewers of his pictures
to feel as if they were inside them. When Bouvier drew back the curtains, the painting seemed to explode in
front of his eyes.
The Rothko arrived at the Geneva Freeport in June. Bouvier went to see it on his own. He had the painting
placed next to a window, to enjoy the natural light. “It is impossible for people to imagine this kind of deal,”
he told me. Bouvier had every reason to feel euphoric. The Moueix family had agreed to sell “No. 6 (Violet,
Green and Red)” for eighty million dollars. He had sold it Rybolovlev for a hundred and eighty-nine million.
There was Peretti’s cut to worry about—some five million—and the usual commission for Rappo, but Bouvier
was about to earn a hundred million dollars on a single sale.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/08/the-bouvier-affair
Rothko-No 6 Violet Green and Red
