George Michael’s personal art collection fetches £11.3m at auction

Extensive collection include works by Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin

The proceeds will go towards philanthropic causes supported by the late singer (Getty)

George Michael’s personal art collection has sold for £11.3m ($15m) at auction.

The collection, comprised of more than 150 lots, was sold in part during an evening sale at Christie’s on London’s King Street. That auction raised £9,264,000 ($12m).

The rest of Michael’s collection was sold in an online auction that closed on Friday, having raised £2,045,375 ($2.7m).

All the proceeds will go towards philanthropic causes supported by the late singer, who died on Christmas Day 2016.

Michael’s extensive collection, which was made available to the public in a pre-sale exhibition, includes works by Damien Hirst that raised more than £2m ($2.7m). Hirst’s The Incomplete Truth took £911,250 ($1.2m), Exquisite Pain went for £875,250 ($1.2m), and The Immaculate Heart – Sacred sold for £323,250 ($429,728).

Also featured were works by Tracey Emin, including her painting Hurricane, which took £431,250 ($573,303); her neon art George Loves Kenny, which Emin created after going on tour with Michael, sold for £347,250 ($461,634); and Drunk to the Bottom of My Soul​ went for £275,000 ($365,585).

Other works included Bridget Riley’s Songbird as well as three pieces by Michael Craig-Martin inspired by Michael’s 1998 arrest after engaging in a sexual act in a public toilet.

Those three works, Untitled (SEX), Untitled (GOD) and Handcuffs, sold for £125,000 ($166,215), £40,000 ($53,188) and £112,500 ($149,593) respectively.