Prolific collector David Pincus (1926-2011), the son of Belarusian immigrants, joined the family’s Philadelphia-based menswear manufacturing business following college and a stint in the Merchant Marine. Producing Bill Blass suits, Pincus Bros.-Maxwell became a highly successful enterprise allowing David and wife Geraldine to amass a significant modern abstract art collection, including works by Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, and Rothko’s Orange, Red, Yellow. Pincus said in an interview that he bought works that moved him, not as investments.
Emotion notwithstanding, a year after his passing, the family made a decision to sell 38 artworks to continue to fund their vast global network of philanthropic endeavors, particularly its pivotal Pincus Family Foundation. Rothko’s towering 8 ft. x 7 ft. Orange, Red, Yellow sold for nearly $87 million in a record-breaking Christie’s auction. Expected not to exceed $45 million, the bidding match, down to only three participants, ultimately consisted of 50 bids and lasted more than six and a half minutes - reportedly one of the longest bidding matches in a contemporary art sale. The final price surpassed the 2007 Rothko record price of $72.8 million when David Rockefeller sold the artist’s White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose). The auction ultimately raised $180 million for pediatric AIDS initiatives, museums, and hospitals.