Some 400 contemporary art works from failed investment giant Lehman Brothers will be auctioned for the bankruptcy administrators of the Wall Street group, Sotheby's said Friday.
The auction house said the auction set for September 25 is estimated to bring in more than 10 million dollars, pending approval of a bankruptcy court judge.
Among the works to be auctioned are examples of early works by many leading artists of the late 20th century — Damien Hirst, Gerhard Richter, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Richard Prince, John Currin and Takashi Murakami.
Also included are items from artists whose work has become more internationally acclaimed over the last decade, including Neo Rauch, Julie Mehretu, Liu Ye and Do Ho Suh.
"It truly is a visionary collection," said Kelly Wright, an advisor to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, who is overseeing the evaluation and sale of the works along with the firm Alvarez & Marsal.
The works include items from the Lehman corporate collection and that of the Neuberger Berman unit of the investment group.
"Many of the works were acquired from cutting edge and emergent artists who have since evolved into the vanguards of the contemporary art world," Wright said.
Among the items expected to fetch the biggest price are British artist Hirst's "We've Got Style (The Vessel Collection/ Blue)," estimated at between 800,000 and 1.2 million dollars.
Chinese artist Liu Ye's "The Long Way Home" is expected to bring in between 600,000 and 800,000 dollars.
The 158-year-old Wall Street firm filed for protection in September 2008 in the largest US bankruptcy filing in history, sending a financial tsunami across the globe.
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