Elton John auction: multi-colored shirts, photographs preferably black and white

WITHInstead of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” New York City is now called “Goodbye Peachtree Road,” which is Christie’s title for a series of auctions featuring items from Elton John’s collection. The 76-year-old pop musician and his husband, film producer David Furnish, are said to be looking to downsize their holdings.

The Peachtree collection of stage costumes, furniture, decorative objects, photographs and paintings is named after the couple’s Atlanta penthouse, which has already sold for $7.2 million. Elton John, who completed his farewell tour last year, sold part of his collection back in 2003 and regularly sells clothing items under the name “Elton’s Closet.”

At Christie’s Rockefeller Center auction, visitors can now see impressive stage costumes until February 21, when the evening’s event will conclude a series of nine Elton John auctions, mostly held online, such as the gold suit designed by Annie Reavey in 1971, which is expected to it will bring up to $12,000.

Elton John’s luxurious interior design style is evident in sofas covered in Versace fabrics, colorful glass sculptures and ornate antiques from Europe, including a 17th-century chest of drawers, the oldest piece in the collection. The musician’s silk Versace shirts are being sold at auction as a set – for $2,000 or more. The piano, on which the star wrote several hits, received an award of 50 thousand dollars.

The collection of photographs, curated by Elton John and David Furnish, is ambitious and includes works by such greats as Lewis Hine, Diane Arbus, Dorothea Lange, Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton and Wolfgang Tillmans. With 7,000 objects, the collection is one of the largest private photographic collections in the world.

Elton John was interested in journalistic, socially critical photography, as well as artistic and erotic works. Part of the collection was exhibited at the Tate Modern in London in 2016 and 2017. With Fragile Beauty, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum will open its largest photography exhibition to date in May, featuring 300 works from Elton John’s collection – slightly less than what is currently on offer at Christie’s.

One of the most important photographs in the auction is Robert Frank’s Charleston, South Carolina, 1955, which depicts a black nanny holding a white child. A gelatin silver print from the 1980s is estimated at $150,000-$180,000.

Cindy Sherman’s 1979 self-portrait “Untitled (Movie Still #39),” one of three along with the artist’s proof, is estimated to fetch up to $500,000. In addition to photographs, there is a portrait of Elton John created by artist Julian Schnabel. The amount is expected to be up to $300,000. The most expensive work is Banksy’s triptych: his “Flower Thrower” in three frames decorated with gold is estimated at $1.5 million.

The auction house expects to raise more than ten million dollars from approximately 900 lots owned by the pop star. For Elton John, who also lives in Los Angeles and London, saying goodbye to Atlanta wasn’t easy. He’s enjoyed every second of his thirties, he said in September at his last concert in Georgia.