A collection of more than 140 artworks from Keith Haring’s personal collection are set to be auctioned off by Sotheby’s, in collaboration with the Keith Haring Foundation. Titled Dear Keith: Works from the Personal Collection of Keith Haring, the sale will include works by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Roy Lichtenstein, and George Condo.
All proceeds from the Dear Keith auction will benefit New York’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center (aka The Center). Haring himself produced one of his late large-scale murals, Once Upon a Time, in the second-floor men’s bathroom of The Center in 1989, as part of a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
Overall, the upcoming auction – which will run September 24 to October 1 – is estimated to earn just under $1 million for the community centre. Starting bids range from as low as $100 for a painting by David Bowes, to $250,000 for a Warhol print featuring Haring and his then-lover, Juan Dubose (see above).
“This incredibly generous sale couldn't come at a more urgent time,” says The Center, in a statement on the sale posted to Instagram. “Our funding is decreasing, while need for our services is increasing.
“Dear Keith is an especially meaningful event in what is the 30th anniversary of Keith’s passing,” adds Gil Vazquez, the Keith Haring Foundation’s acting director, in a statement. “It is rare that we as a foundation are able to address so many of the concerns that our founder deeply cared about in a single gift.”
Revisit the story of Keith Haring, as told through his iconic art, here.