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Event date May 2026 -
Event location New York
Gund acquired Mark Rothko’s No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe) directly from the artist during a visit to his studio in 1967. It became the centrepiece of a legendary collection that included major works by Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns and Brice Marden. Cy Twombly’s Untitled, painted in 1961 at the height of the artist’s expressive powers, is an exceptional example of his unique painterly forms he produced while living in Rome. It is with works such as this that Twombly cemented his reputation as one of the greatest painters of the post-war period. Joseph Cornell’s Untitled (Medici Princess) represents the peak of the artist’s creative output through what is considered his most important body of work — the Medici Slot Machines and related works. The work combines Renaissance art with found objects to produce a Surrealist-inspired dreamlike world that evokes memory and childhood. Together all three objects represent the breadth of Gund’s interests and demonstrate her eye for quality.
Gund’s life was powered by art. In addition to her enviable collection, she served as a inspirational leader to many arts organisations. Most notably, she joined the Museum of Modern Art’s international council in 1967 — the same year she acquired her painting by Rothko — and became the museum’s president, an esteemed position she held for 11 years. During her tenure as president, and later president emeritus, Gund oversaw the museum’s development of its contemporary collection, particularly work by women artists and artists of colour, plus its $858 million expansion into a new building designed by Yoshio Taniguchi, doubling the museum’s exhibition space. In addition to her leadership role, over her lifetime, she donated more than 800 works to the museum.
Her lifelong commitment to using art as a vehicle for social change culminated in 2017 when she sold another important work from her collection, Lichtenstein’s Masterpiece (1962), to establish her ‘Art for Justice Fund,’ a time-limited initiative that provided grants to promote criminal justice reform. Gund’s passion and dedication was legendary. She built one of the most admired collections of contemporary art in a generation and her commitment to institutions she supported was unwavering. Her legacy will last for generations to come.
Works from the Collection of Agnes Gund will tour globally before being sold at Christie’s New York in our May 20th/21st Century sale series.
Highlights
MARK ROTHKO (1903-1970)
No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe)
Mark Rothko’s No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe) is a landmark of the artist’s mature period. In his largest work from this critical period to remain in private hands, Rothko reveals his deepening engagement with darker, saturated hues across the work’s nearly eight-foot expanse, animating verdant green and searing black expanses with a narrow, electrifying band of red against the deep indigo ground. Here, the abstract master’s layered pigments dissolve form into an ethereal field of rich spiritual transcendence. Attesting to its significance, the work is one of the very few bought directly from Rothko which remains with the original owner. Agnes Gund acquired the work from the studio on the recommendation of fellow tastemaker and collector Emily Hall Tremaine. Bridging aesthetic and emotional intensity, this pivotal canvas reveals Rothko at the zenith of his expressive mastery.
CY TWOMBLY (1928–2011)
Untitled
In Untitled, Cy Twombly makes form and myth come alive as a tangible experience. Painted in Rome in 1961, the artist’s annus mirabilis, the work reflects his deep engagement with the physical and metaphysical remains of Mediterranean antiquity. Twombly unleashes an energetic torrent of gestures and marks amid a newly vibrant palette, using both brush and his bare hand to build up layers of pigment, line and script that swirl across the canvas in an enigmatic maelstrom. The eruption of creativity on display reveals the seismic collision of New York abstraction and European antiquity, resulting in a revelatory visual experience. The manifold layers of Untitled are unearthed archeologically by the viewer to create a poignant aesthetic sense of the timelessness of the Eternal City.
JOSEPH CORNELL (1903–1972)
Untitled (Medici Princess)
Joseph Cornell’s Untitled (Medici Princess) fuses Renaissance imagery, personal reverie and poetic assemblage into a celebrated constellation. At its centre is a reproduction of Bronzino’s Portrait of Bia de’ Medici, the beloved daughter of Cosimo I, set within a blue painted box structured by glass shelves and map lined compartments. Around the princess are various symbolic fragments that evoke childhood discovery and dynastic geography. Accents such as an orange wooden ball and timekeeping motifs meditate on memory, lineage and time. At once sophisticated and melancholy, Cornell’s lyrical box reveals the artist’s Surrealist influence, using found objects to create a shrine-like work emphasising the cult of the object. Executed at the peak of the artist’s fame, the work is a striking exemplar from Cornell’s most renowned series.
MAIN IMAGE: Agnes Gund in her New York apartment. Photo: Stefan Ruiz for Vogue © Condé Nast. Artwork: © 2026 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Christo 2000.