FROM WRITING JURASSIC PARK TO JASPER JOHNS PAINTINGS

Beginning May 11, Christie's in New York will auction major works from the art collection of late author, screenwriter, director, and producer Michael Crichton announced the auction house on February 5. Four works from the collection -- Jasper Johns's Flag, plus paintings by Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein, and Picasso -- are on display at Christie's in London through February 12. Crichton was acknowledged as a leading authority on the American artist Jasper Johns, having been asked by the artist to write the catalog for his 1977 retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Crichton was close friends with Johns and also struck up friendships with artists David Hockney (who made a portrait of Crichton in 1976), Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, and Claes Oldenburg.

The Independent
March 8 2010