Select items from the personal art collection of musician actor and icon David Bowie, who died earlier this year, are set to be exhibited here before being put on the block in November by auctioneers Sotheby's.
Bowie's influence has been widely recognized to transcend music and shape the wider culture of our time but not much has been known about him being an art collector.
Around 400 items from the private collection of Bowie, which includes works by Henry Moore, Damien Hirst and Marcel Duchamp will be exhibited in London, Los Angeles, New York and Hong Kong before a three-part sale 'Bowie/Collector' here.
"David's art collection was fuelled by personal interest and compiled out of passion. He always sought and encouraged loans from the collection and enjoyed sharing the works in his custody.," a spokesperson for the Estate of David Bowie said in a statement.
"Though his family are keeping certain pieces of particular significance, it is now time to give others the opportunity to appreciate - and acquire - the art and objects he so admired," the spokesperson said.
The whole collection, including more than 100 pieces of furniture reflecting his interest in all aspects of design, is expected to raise more than 10 million pounds at the sale scheduled from November 1-10.
The collection includes Bowie's record player of choice an unconventional piece of 1960s Italian design.
At the heart of the auction is the musician actor's collection of Modern and Contemporary British art - a richly stimulating group of over 200 works by many of the most important British artists of the 20th-century, including Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, Frank Auerbach and Damien Hirst.
Bowie's famously inquisitive mind also led him to Outsider Art, Surrealism, Contemporary African art and, not least, to the work of the eccentric Italian designer Ettore Sottsass and the Memphis group.
"This is a collection put together with great thoughtfulness on the basis not of reputation but of Bowie's highly personal, intellectual response to the individual vision and individual works of particular artists," auctioneers said.
