Crichton art collection may exceed $75 million at Christie's

3 April 2010

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Jasper Johns' pop art rendition "Flag," from the collection of Michael Crichton, will be offered at Christie's with a pre-sale estimate of $10 million to $15 million.

Popular thriller writer Michael Crichton, of "ER" and "Jurassic Park" fame, died in 2008. He left behind a top-notch art collection which his family is selling 80% of at Christie's in New York on May 11-12.

Among the works to watch for record-setting status is Jasper Johns' "Flag," which decorated the writer's Beverly Hills bedroom. Johns and Crichton were friends; the catalog for the 1977 Johns retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art was written by Crichton. The pre-sale estimate is $10 million to $15 million, but expectations are running high for a record price.

About 70 paintings from the collection, from Pablo Picasso to Robert Rauschenberg, are on view at Christie's Rockefeller Center galleries through April 13.

Read more at Washington Post

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