The unique art collection of David Bowie is to be revealed to the public for the first time

The musician's life as a collector was something he kept almost entirely hidden from public view.

But now, nearly 300 works by artists including Damien Hirst, Henry Moore and Marcel Duchamp will go on display at Sotheby's in London, before being sold at auction in November.

Born and raised in South London, David Bowie was also drawn to chroniclers of the capital's streets such as Leon Kossoff and Frank Auerbach.

The singer was also fascinated by British landscapes and collected works by artists including John Virtue. Seven of his monochrome works are included in the sale.

But the broad ranging collection is not limited to British art. Among the more maverick works is a piece by Duchamp - A Bruit Secret - in which he placed a ball of string between two brass plates, with an unknown object hidden in the middle. It is expected to fetch up to £250,000.

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.

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.

Bowie loved the art world. In 1994, in an unusual move for a rock superstar, he joined the editorial board of a quarterly arts magazine Modern Painters where he was introduced to the novelist William Boyd.

Boyd also thinks the art world appealed to Bowie because it was so different from his music career.

As well as 267 paintings, more than 120 items of 20th Century furniture and sculpture will also be auctioned. Among them, a striking 1960s stereo cabinet created by the Italian designers Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni.