The painting in question, then, would have to be Mark Rothko's 1951 painting No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red). The piece is among Rothko's best; it graces the cover of the artist's catalogue ...

The Rothko work "Untitled, (Yellow and Blue)", measuring 2.42 meters by 1.86 meters (about eight feet by 6.1 feet) and completed in 1954, had been estimated at between $40 and $60 million.