The private art collection of David Bowie is to be revealed to the public for the first time.

Art collecting was something David Bowie kept as a secret during his lifetime. But now, nearly 300 works by artists including Damien Hirst, Henry Moore and Marcel Duchamp will go on display at Sotheby’s in London, before being sold at auction in November.

The works of art are collectively expected to generate more than £10million. Most of the works are by 20th Century British artists, with pictures by Stanley Spencer, Patrick Caulfield and Peter Lanyon.

Born and raised in South London, David Bowie was also drawn to chroniclers of the capital’s streets such as Leon Kossoff and Frank Auerbach. In 1998 Bowie told the New York Times, “My God, yeah – I want to sound like that looks,” in response to the work of Auerbach.

Oliver Barker, chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, summarised: “David Bowie’s collection offers a unique insight into the personal world of one of the 20th Century’s greatest creative spirits.” The artist and writer Matthew Collings says the collection reflected Bowie’s personality, commenting: “I would characterise it as bohemian, romantic, expressive, emotional art. Art that’s filled with feelings,” he said, adding it was “vivid and exciting” and was “art that calls for a gut reaction, that’s visceral, that’s immediate, that you feel excited by straight away”.

David Bowie informed the BBC in 1999: “The only thing I buy obsessively and addictively is art. Very little had been known about his life as an art collector. David Bowie did not buy on the basis of reputation or for investment, but was motivated by taste and his own personal response to each artist and their work.

As well as 267 paintings, more than 120 items of 20th Century furniture and sculpture from David Bowie’s collection will also be auctioned. Among them, a striking 1960s stereo cabinet created by the Italian designers Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni.

If you cannot afford to buy any of his art you can collect your own David Bowie memorabilia, by ordering your favourite David Bowie song in a vinyl single format; framed and mounted as a picture disc souvenir. If it’s intended as a gift, you can also personalise it with an inscribed / engraved plaque…… ORDER NOW…….. www.myfirstrecord.co.uk/