Robert Mnuchin: Collector at Heart

Few have navigated the worlds of finance and art with such aplomb as renowned dealer and collector Robert E. Mnuchin, whose first career as a legendary investment banker gave way to a life dedicated to pursuing his love of art. This May, a selection of works from Mnuchin’s collection will emerge at auction, estimated to achieve in excess of $130 million. Assembled together with his wife Adriana across decades, the deeply personal collection is a true expression of the pair’s shared, fervent devotion to pursuing works they loved and wanted to live with, embodying Mnuchin’s collecting ethos that “the reason to buy art is because you love it, you love it, you love it”. (Robin Pogrebin, “At 80, Mnuchin Remains a Passionate Promoter of Postwar Art”, The New York Times, October 13, 2013) Renowned across the art world for his discerning eye for the artists represented in his personal collection - including Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, and Willem de Kooning - the superlative quality of the examples that Mnuchin chose for himself reflect this extreme level of connoisseurship. Acquiring the works that resonated with him in their ambition and achievement, the group of works is led by Mark Rothko’s towering Brown and Blacks in Reds from 1957 (estimate $70-100 million).