Actor Dennis Hopper’s Art Collection to be Auctioned

The actor Dennis Hopper used to describe himself as a “gallery bum”. And now artworks from this famous gallery bum’s estate is going to be auctioned by Christie’s on Nov. 10 and Nov.11 in New York. The major attractions in the collection are artworks made by Andy Warhol and Basquiat.

Though the specific pieces haven’t been decided upon, but the auction is expected to fetch as much as $10 million! The actor had died this May at the age of 74 due to prostate cancer. Marc Potter, chairman of Christie’s Americas said, “It’s an artist’s collection, it’s not the collection of a banker or mogul. It’s the collection of a creative artist.” The best of the lot are Warhol’s 1971 “Portrait of Dennis Hopper”. This piece that sees the actor in a cowboy getup is expected to go under the hammer for $1.2 million.

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Untitled” tops even the Warhol piece and is expected to fetch an amazing $7million! This painting as Hopper claimed was bought in 1999 for just $17,000. The actors love for the arts grew out of his friendship with fellow actor James Dean. He started collecting artworks from the 50s and managed to amass a pretty good collection. He once said, “My idea of collecting is not going out and buying bankable names but buying people that I believe are really contributing something to my artistic life.”

Via: Bloomberg , Coldwellbankerpreviews , Moca