U2 Selling Contemporary Basquiat Painting

Irish rockers U2 are expecting to cash in on a painting by late artist JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT - they are auctioning off the artwork with an estimated price tag of $8 million (GBP4 million).

Basquiat completed Untitled (Pecho/Oreja) in 1983 - five years before he died of a drug overdose (88).

The painting was spotted by U2 bassist Adam Clayton in a New York gallery and the band bought it in 1989 to help decorate their Dublin studio.

But the masterpiece will now go under the hammer at the Contemporary Art Sale at London auction house Sotheby's on 1 July (08).

Oliver Barker, of Sotheby's Contemporary Art department, says, "It seems especially appropriate that a work by Basquiat should end up in a music studio, since so much has been said about the relationship between his art and music."

It has been estimated to fetch between $8 to $10 million (GBP4 to GBP5 million).