Robert Mnuchin spent the first half of his career building Goldman Sachs into a trading powerhouse, then walked away at 62 to start over in a field he loved. He died Friday at his home in Connecticut, at 92.
Mnuchin's first act was foundational. In the 1960s and '70s, he was central to Goldman's rise in block trading—moving large stock positions that other firms wouldn't touch. He made partner in 1967, co-headed trading and arbitrage by 1976, and joined the management committee in 1980. By 1990, he retired from finance entirely.
But retirement didn't stick. In 1992, at an age when most people settle into golf, Mnuchin opened C&M Arts. He later partnered with Dominique Levy to establish L&M Arts, and in 2013 opened Mnuchin Gallery—a space devoted to museum-quality exhibitions of postwar American work. His roster included Pollock, Rothko, de Kooning, Koons, and Stella. The gallery became a quiet authority in the market, known not for spectacle but for rigor.
We're a new kind of news feed.
Regular news is designed to drain you. We're a non-profit built to restore you. Every story we publish is scored for impact, progress, and hope.
Start Your News DetoxWhat set Mnuchin apart was his philosophy about why people buy art at all. "The reason to buy art is because you love it, you love it, you love it," he told the New York Times in 2013. It wasn't a sales pitch—it was his actual operating principle. Colleagues described him as modest and disciplined, the kind of dealer who moved through auction rooms with a calm, relentless bidding style rather than flash. In 2019, he placed a $91.1 million bid for Jeff Koons's Rabbit (1986), setting a record for a living artist.
Mnuchin was Steven Mnuchin's father—the former Treasury Secretary under Trump—but he largely stayed out of politics. The art world remembered him instead for his integrity. A former Sotheby's chairman called him "one of the straightest shooters in the business."
He worked well into his later years despite mobility challenges. "I love what I do," he said in a 2021 interview. "I'd be lost without it." That's not something you hear often from people who've already won at two different games.
