KUALA LUMPUR: A painting once owned by fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low, valued at an estimated US$30 million, is set to be auctioned at Sotheby's in Hong Kong later this year.
The Mark Rothko piece, "Untitled (Yellow and Blue)," was one of several artworks acquired by Low in 2013.
The auction, initially scheduled for next week, has been postponed to November, as reported by Artnet's newsletter, The Asia Pivot.
Insiders suggest, Artnet reported, that Sotheby's faced challenges in securing consignments for the sale, but a spokesman said in an email that the delay was to "capitalise on the significant number of visitors" following the opening of Sotheby's Maison.
The painting has a storied history, having passed through several high-profile owners, including American philanthropists Paul and Bunny Mellon, who acquired it around 1970–71, French luxury mogul François Pinault, and Azerbaijani-Russian billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov, who purchased it at Sotheby's in 2015 for US$46.45 million.
Low later used the painting as collateral for a loan, allowing Sotheby's to offer it for sale again in 2015 when it was still a public company (it went private under Patrick Drahi in 2019).
Earlier this year, Low was ordered by the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) to forfeit more than US$100 million in assets, including a luxury Paris apartment and works by Claude Monet and Andy Warhol, over his involvement in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) embezzlement scandal.
The forfeited assets are in addition to nearly US$1 billion, including a US$120 million "superyacht," that Low and his family previously forfeited.
Low still faces criminal money laundering and bribery conspiracy charges in Brooklyn, New York, over sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.