Christie's auction house in New York. Auction house Christie's just sold a painting for more than $100 million, although the artwork, the buyer and the seller were officially kept a secret. In an interview with CNBC, CEO Guillaume Cerutti said Christie's sold a painting in January in a private sale with a price "in excess of $100 million," though the auction house declined to provide details. In a private sale, a work is brought for a possible sale to an auction house, which reaches out to its top clients and brokers a deal. Private sales have surged since the Covid-19 pandemic, as more and more collectors prefer discreet transactions outside the public eye.

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Persons: Robert Frank, Guillaume Cerutti, Christie's, Mark Rothko's, Green, Dmitry Rybolovlev, Kenneth Griffin, Griffin, Ken Griffin, Scott Mlyn, Mark Rothko Organizations: CNBC, Citadel, CNBC's, Alpha, Private Locations: New York