George Michael’s private art collection available to view before auction

Items from George Michael’s personal art collection – including a colourful portrait of the late music star by Michael Craig-Martin – are available to view ahead of being sold at auction.

Michael, an avid art lover, had amassed a collection of more than 200 works of art before his death in 2016 and many of those pieces will be sold by Christie’s later this month.

The auction house has estimated that prices will range from £400 to £1.5 million in a live sale as well as an online auction.

One of the pieces on public view at Christie’s London is a brightly coloured 2007 portrait of Michael – called Commissioned Portrait Untitled (George) – by contemporary conceptual artist Craig-Martin, which is expected to sell for between £40,000 and £60,000.

Among the artworks up for auction are Tracey Emin’s Drunk To The Bottom Of My Soul (2002), Damien Hirst’s The Incomplete Truth (2006) and Cecily Brown’s Yet To Be Titled (2008).

The Emin piece, a stitched blanket artwork, is estimated to sell for between £180,000 and £250,000.

Hirst’s The Incomplete Truth – a single white dove suspended as in mid-flight in a vertical tank of formaldehyde – is expected to sell for as much as £1.4 million.

Brown’s oil painting is estimated to sell for between £350,000 and £550,000.

Some pieces will be available online, with bidding open from March 8 until March 15, and the flagship auction will take place on March 14.

Proceeds from the sale will be used to continue the singer’s philanthropic work.

Michael, who died on Christmas Day in 2016 at the age of 53, built his collection through visits to galleries and artists’ studios. He also developed friendships with members of the Young British Artists (YBA) movement, including Emin, Hirst, Craig-Martin, Sarah Lucas and Marc Quinn.

Christie’s exhibition of works from its The George Michael Collection Evening and Online Auctions are available for public view from March 9 – March 15 at Christie’s London.