David Bowie’s Art Collection Raised $30 Million On Opening Night, Tripling Projected Estimates

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On Thursday night in London, Sotheby’s launched their “Bowie/Collector” auction, which features nearly 350 works of art owned by the late David Bowie. Many art collectors evidently want a piece of artwork owned by Bowie with the auction’s first day of three raking in $30.3 million, tripling the evening’s estimates. To put these numbers in perspective, Rolling Stone reported back in July that the entire collection being sold over the auction’s three days was estimated to garner a total of approximately $13 million.

One of the most sought-after works sold was Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Air Power” painting, which had a low sale estimate of $3.3 million and ended up being purchased by an anonymous European collector for a whopping $8.8 million. According to the The New York Times, Bowie bought “Air Power” at Christie’s in London for $120,122 in 1995.

The two-day auction continues through Saturday, with nearly 300 more pieces of Bowie’s collection still for sale. Judging by how much the auction’s first installment, it’s fair to say that Sotheby’s is likely going to make a lot more than they expected. Check out a live walk-through of the exhibition below and take a peek at (maybe place a bid on?) some of the works that are up for auction on Friday and Saturday over at the Sotheby’s website.

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