A dramatization of events surrounding the 1971 lawsuit filed by the daughter of deceased abstract painter Mark Rothko reveals ''an art world far removed from the rarefied esthetics of high culture...Its dealings were shown to be secretive, unregulated and unashamedly exploitive in pursuit of the maximum profit. The dangers and temptations for all artists were manifest.''

Emotionally troubled, alcoholic, yet brilliant and acclaimed artist Mark Rothko's death by apparent suicide, was followed by a scandal over controlling his ill defined "Foundation" and a controversial modified will that entirely omitted his young children. The estate's executors, made up of former friends, and associates in the New York art world were charged with conspiring to rob the noted Expressionist artist's kids of millions of dollars through conspiracy and conflict of interest. The heirs accused the executors not only of mismanaging their duty but also of defrauding the estate by devaluing 800 Rothko works in a bulk sale deal cut with the tony Marlborough Gallery in Manhattan, operated by a man Rothko reputedly loathed. In one fell swoop the estate's executors sold all of Rothko's remaining stored works for a fraction of their value. Recently, a single Rothko painting sold for over $75 million dollars, yet the men in charge of his legacy valued his paintings at approx just $35,000 avg each in 1970.

The resulting legal challenges to the illicit sales & international chicanery took 6 years to litigate, and divided the art world into partisan camps while revealing the unseemly greed, manipulations and malfeasance that can still occur under guise of friendship & respectability within the world of art collectors. The descending vultures and the struggling family's fight begat this film production of BBC and Lionheart Television based on Lee Seldes's 1978 book, ''The Legacy of Mark Rothko.'' Other source material consisted of the actual trial transcripts and interviews with Gustave Harrow, then Assistant Attorney General for New York State, who prosecuted the case on behalf of the public.

Mr. Harrow ended up being instrumental in the area of art legislation, creating the most comprehensive laws in the country.after initially undertaking the job of redefining the Rothko foundation, finding that its administrators had overridden Rothko's true intentions to preserve, protect and properly disseminate his work.

The production seen here is from a degraded thirty year old VHS copy of the 1983 telecast written by Michael Baker and directed by Paul Watson. I apologize for the quality of the image, but felt the film, which is fairly hard to find, was worth making available.