Tony Curtis art collection to go under hammer

An extensive art collection and other memorabilia that once belonged to the late Hollywood actor Tony Curtis are to be sold at auction next month in Beverly Hills, according to sale organisers.

The actor immortalised in Some Like It Hot, and who died last year, was also an accomplished flautist and a painter whose work resides in the permanent collection of the Mu-seum of Modern Art in New York.

Among the works to go under the hammer are a Some Like It Hot themed painting by Andy Warhol, three drawings by Balthus, and ceramics and prints by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Marc Chagall.

Some of Tony Curtis’s own works such as “paintings, drawings, prints, ceramic vases and a tapestry” will also be up for sale, the auction house, Julien’s Auctions said in a statement.

Souvenirs and memorabilia from the actor’s long career are part of the sale, including a yachtsman’s jacket he wore in the famed shipboard kissing scene with Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot, valued at €7,000 to €10,000.

The sale will take place on September 17 in Beverly Hills. Items will be on display between September 6 and 16.

Tony Curtis – who was known almost as well for his off-camera dalliances, with Monroe and many others, as for his acting skills – died of a heart attack in September at his home outside Las Vegas. He was 85.