The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts will be selling its collection of the artist's works exclusively through Christie's auction house to raise money for its endowment, the foundation and the auction house announced Wednesday.
The foundation said the money raised for its endowment from the sales would allow it to expand support of the visual arts, fulfilling Warhol's purpose in establishing it.
The agreement means Christie's will hold a series of sales over the coming years, including auctions, private sales and online events. The foundation said it would also make donations to museums.
"These sales will provide unprecedented global access to Andy Warhol's work, in keeping with the artist's own democratizing philosophy and working methods," foundation president Joel Wachs said. "The gifts we will make to museums along with the enhanced grant-making made possible by the art sales, when taken together, will underscore Warhol's legacy and impact on the art world and will provide an even more secure basis to expand that philanthropy in the future."
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Christie's CEO Steven Murphy said the sales program "will bring the work of Andy Warhol both to those who already acquire masterpieces and to new audiences anywhere and everywhere in the world who never before imagined they could own a Warhol."
The collection includes items ranging from prints to photographs, some of which have not been seen by the public. The live auctions will start on Nov. 12, and the online auctions will begin in February.
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