New York, May 15 (Bloomberg) -- Two Mark Rothko paintings led the spring Postwar and Contemporary art sale at Christie's International Plc in New York, with one of them setting an auction record for the artist at $16.3 million.

Robert Mnuchin, chairman of the Manhattan gallery C&M Arts purchased the top painting, the 1958 ``No. 9 (White and Black on Wine),'' which was estimated at $8 million to $12 million. The seller was Francois Pinault, owner of Christie's and chairman of financial-services firm Artemis SA. Mnuchin's gallery director at C&M, Jennifer Vorbach, bought the other Rothko, ``Brown and Blacks in Reds,'' for $6.73 million, just over its $6 million low estimate.

The sales were part of a $69.8 million auction that Christopher Burge, Christie's honorary chairman and the evening's auctioneer, said produced the highest returns of any sale in any category this year. Recent sales of contemporary art have fetched higher prices than Impressionist and Modern auctions, reversing the trend. Christie's sale continued that, producing $10.1 million more than its Impressionist and Modern sale a week ago.

``The Rothko is the exception, but otherwise collectors are being very careful about the extent to which they'll spend their money,'' said Armand Bartos, a private New York art dealer. ``There's a discretionary strength.''

Below Estimate

The sale fell $5.2 million below the low estimate of $75 million, faring better than Sotheby's contemporary auction on Tuesday night, which was $6.4 million below the anticipated $33.7 million return. Christie's established six records for artists, including Chuck Close, Duane Hanson, and Takashi Murakami. It did fail to find buyers for 17 of the 60 works offered, however, including an Arshile Gorky painting estimated at $15 million.

Both Rothko paintings saw active bidding. Mnuchin engaged in an extended battle for ```No. 9 (White and Black on Wine),'' with Pace Wildenstein Gallery director Douglas Baxter and two other bidders on the telephone. Vorbach outbid Abigail Ascher, a New York private dealer and at least two other bidders in the room.

The work Vorbach won, ``Brown and Blacks in Reds,'' came from the Seagram collection of art. Vivendi Universal SA, which acquired Seagram's 2,500-piece art trove when it bought the wine and spirits company in 2000, is selling the artwork to pay off debt. That particular piece once hung in the office of Jean-Marie Messier, Vivendi's former chief executive.

Pinault's work also had a connection to Seagram: his Rothko was part of a series of murals commissioned by the company to hang in the Four Seasons Restaurant designed by Philip Johnson in the Seagram Building on Park Avenue. After completing about 40 panels, Rothko, an avowed socialist, decided to reject the commission because the room, which was designed for luxury, offended him.

Five of Seven Warhols

Both Rothkos feature soft blocks of color on reddish backgrounds. The record-breaking piece is at least twice the width of the second work, at 105 inches by 166 inches.

The previous auction record for a work by Rothko was $14.3 million, established at Sotheby's in May 2000 for ``Yellow over Purple,'' painted in 1956.

The third highest price for the evening was achieved by Yves Klein's mixed-media work made of sponges, pigment and synthetic resin on board, created in 1958. It sold to an anonymous bidder for $5.27 million, over its high estimate of $4 million.

Andy Warhol's ``Marlon,'' a black silkscreen image of Marlon Brando wearing a biker's cap and leaning on a motorcycle from the movie ``The Wild One,'' produced $5.05 million. An unidentified midwestern collector purchased the 1966 piece, which last sold at auction in November 1997 at Sotheby's for $1.65 million.

``Marlon'' was one of seven Warhols that Christie's offered during its evening sale, and one of five that sold. On Tuesday night, Sotheby's put seven Warhols on the block and sold four.

Andrew Fabricant, an art dealer with the Richard Gray Gallery of Chicago and New York, purchased Warhol's ``Campbell's Soup Can (Pepper Pot),'' one of the artist's most iconic images, for $2.42 million, just above its high $2 million estimate.

``Warhol prices held up extremely well,'' he said at the end of the sale. ``And the prices of the Rothkos were terrific. The Seagram piece was a great picture but a lot tougher, because it didn't have that sense of weightlessness the other one has. The big one was a landmark picture, and it got the right price.''

Last Updated: May 15, 2003 00:00 EDT