Marlborough inventory, anticipating a heightened value in the market after Rothko's death. Further, the 100 paintings 'sold' after Rothko's death by the estate executors through Marlborough were not sold to bona fide purchasers, but were instead retained by the gallery which shuffled the sale monies through its accounts in Europe, and which then quickly 're-sold' the works to actual purchasers for 5 to 6 times the value declared by the estate. Many works were sold this way by the Marlborough with the complicity of the executors despite the court's injunction against selling any works while the case was unresolved and still before the courts. Ultimately, certain directors at Marlborough were convicted of defrauding the Rothko family, and in 1975, the court ordered the gallery to pay over $9 million in damages and costs, and also ordered the gallery to return 658 Rothko paintings it still held. Marlborough disputed the return of the paintings and was able to prevail as to those works it had sold during the proceedings in defiance of the court's orders to the contrary. Those works remained in the hands of collectors, including Rothko's 1953 oil on canvas painting, Homage to Matisse, which later sold at public auction for US $22.4 million. Valuation issues The courts involved in litigating the Rothko matter were faced with many complex issues as part of and beyond the wrongdoing of the Marlborough group as estate executors. In particular, the valuation of services rendered by counsel were litigated at length; and the valuation of the paintings posed complex questions as their valuation affected nearly every other matter facing the court. In 1979 after much of the matter's litigation had already taken place, the court said:... [T]he bulk of the estate was and is in the form of hundreds of paintings rather than cash ... and ... [the] Internal Revenue Service may not at an early time complete its final determination with respect to date-of-death estate taxes. The estate is presently resisting a deficiency assessment of large proportions. In litigating that issue there is not only a difference of opinion with respect to the value of the hundreds of paintings in this estate but also whether a blockage discount should be given to the estate and whether a further discount should be available due to the inter vivos contract for an exclusive agency in favor of Marlborough Galleries for seven years after death,