Elton John auctions at Christie's in New York

SInstead of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” in New York it is now called “Goodbye Peachtree Road”: This is what the auction house Christie's calls a series of auctions with objects from Elton John's collection. It is said that the 76-year-old pop musician and his husband, film producer David Furnish, want to downsize their property.

The “Peachtree Collection” of stage outfits, furnishings, decorative objects, photographs and paintings is named after the couple's penthouse apartment in Atlanta, which has already been sold – for $7.2 million. Elton John, who completed his farewell tour last year, sold parts of his collection back in 2003 and regularly sells items of clothing under the title “Elton's Closet”.

At Christie's at Rockefeller Center, visitors can now see some impressive stage costumes until February 21st – when an evening event will crown the series of nine Elton John auctions, mostly held online: for example a gold suit that Annie Reavey designed in 1971 and which is expected to bring in up to $12,000.

Elton John's opulent interior design style is evident in sofas covered in Versace fabrics, colorful glass sculptures and ornate antiques from Europe, including a 17th-century chest of drawers, the oldest piece in the collection. The musician's Versace silk shirts are being auctioned off as a set – for $2,000 or more. A grand piano on which the star wrote several hits has been awarded $50,000.

The collection of photographs created by Elton John and David Furnish is ambitious, with works by greats such as Lewis Hine, Diane Arbus, Dorothea Lange, Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton and Wolfgang Tillmans. Counting 7,000 objects, the collection is one of the largest private photo collections in the world.

Elton John was interested in journalistic, socially critical photography as well as artistic or erotic works. The Tate Modern in London exhibited part of the collection in 2016 and 2017. With “Fragile Beauty,” London’s Victoria & Albert Museum will open its most extensive photo show to date in May: 300 works from Elton John’s collection will be on display – slightly fewer than are now offered at Christie’s.

One of the most important photos in the auction is Robert Frank's “Charleston, South Carolina, 1955” photograph of a black nanny holding a white baby. The gelatin silver print from the 1980s is estimated at $150,000 to $180,000.

A 1979 self-portrait by Cindy Sherman, “Untitled (Film Still #39),” one of three alongside the artist’s proof, is estimated at up to $500,000. Aside from the photographs, there is a portrait of Elton John created by the painter Julian Schnabel. It is expected to raise up to $300,000. The most expensive piece is a triptych by Banksy: his “Flower Thrower” in three gold-decorated frames is valued at 1.5 million dollars.

The auction house expects to raise more than ten million dollars from the approximately 900 lots owned by the pop star. For Elton John, who also lives in Los Angeles and London, saying goodbye to Atlanta was not easy. He enjoyed every second of his thirty years there, he said in September at his last concert in the state of Georgia.