Pauline Karpidas collection sale could set auction record

David Bowie and Freddie Mercury were hardly strangers to the limelight but both could be outshone by art collector-extraordinaire Pauline Karpidas.

Sotheby's announced this morning it will sell the collection from her London home including work by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, René Magritte and Salvador Dali.

The auction house said the sale, in London on September 17 and 18, was estimated to fetch around $81 million which it said was "the highest estimate ever placed on a single collection at Sotheby’s in Europe".

Previous single owner sales to hit the headlines at Sotheby's include the Mercury auction which made $54 million and Bowie's art collection which went for around $44 million.

The widow of the late Greek shipping magnate Constantine Karpidas, she famously persuaded art dealer Alexander Iolas out of retirement to help build her legendary collection.

A patron of the arts, she has supported museums including the Tate in London and New York's New Museum as well as The Whitworth in her hometown of Manchester in the north of England.

She also supported individual artists, many of whom spent time at her home on the Greek island of Hydra.