A rare chance to get up close to the icon’s favourite artworks.

David Bowie’s private art collection will be shown to the public for the first time ahead of an auction in November.

Nearly 300 works by artists including Damien Hirst, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Frank Auerbach, Henry Moore and Marcel Duchamp will go on display in London, LA, New York and Hong Kong before being sold at Sotheby’s in London, where they’re expected to fetch more than £10m in total.

Bowie was a lifelong collector of art, particularly paintings, but little had been known about his personal collection. Most of the works are by 20th century British artists like Stanley Spencer and Patrick Caulfield.

Basquiat’s graffiti-style painting ‘Air Power’ is the most valuable lot in the auction, with an estimated value of £2.5m – £3.5m.

“David Bowie’s collection offers a unique insight into the personal world of one of the 20th Century’s greatest creative spirits,” said Oliver Barker, chairman of Sotheby’s Europe.

One of the more unusual works in the collection is Duchamp’s ‘A Bruit Secret’, a sculpture which places a ball of string between two brass plates with an unknown object hidden in the middle.

Bowie had entered the art world himself, once teaming up with novelist William Boyd to host a launch party for a book about the life of an American artist called Nat Tate – who was completely fictitious, made up by the pair as an elaborate hoax.

As well as 267 paintings, the collection includes more than 120 items of 20th century sculpture and furniture, including a stereo cabinet by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni.

Proceeds from the sale will go to Bowie’s family, who have said that lack of space is the reason for the sale.

The collection goes on view at Sotheby’s in London next week, from July 20 to August 9. The works will then travel to Los Angeles (September 20-21), New York (September 26-29), Hong Kong (October 12-15) before returning to London for a final showing ahead of the auctions on November 10-11.

Yesterday it was revealed that Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, is still the year’s biggest-selling vinyl record, having sold over 57,000 copies.

Later this year one of Bowie’s most iconic film roles will return to the big screen when The Man Who Fell To Earth is given a 40th anniversary reissue. [via BBC News]