The American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s graffiti-style painting Air Power is the most valuable lot in the auction, with an estimated value of between £2.5m – £3.5m.
Bowie bought the painting a year after he played the role of the artist’s mentor, Andy Warhol, in the 1996 film Basquiat.
The artist and writer Matthew Collings says the collection reflected Bowie’s personality.
“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”.
Although Bowie told the BBC in 1999 “The only thing I buy obsessively and addictively is art,” little had been known about his life as an art collector.
He did not buy on the basis of reputation or for investment, but because of his own personal response to each artist and their work.