2. Rothko: Marlborough Gallery Scandal
The Rothko scandal involved lengthy professional litigation over a period from 1971 to 1979. Proceedings included removal of the estate’s original executors, setting aside the contracts those executors made with the Marlborough gallery, eliminating the rights of the gallery with respect to its inter vivos contracts with the artist, restoring hundreds of paintings to the artist’s estate, removal proceedings to compensate the estate for paintings not returnable to it to the extent of millions of dollars, election proceedings litigating the rights of election by the children against an excessive charitable distribution, contents proceedings construing Mark Rothko’s will as to the meaning of the “contents” of the family residence willed to his widow and to her estate and later by the widow’s will to Rothko’s children, and valuation proceedings for valuing the art, assessed costs, fees, and taxes. What a mess!