Damien Hirst, All You Need Is Love, 2006. Estimate: $1/1.5 million. © Sotheby's Images

LONDON/NEW YORK.- Bono and Damien Hirst have joined forces with Sotheby’s and Gagosian Gallery to organise the most significant charity auction of Contemporary Art ever - The (RED) Auction - which will be held at Sotheby’s in New York on Valentine’s Day, Thursday, February 14th, 2008. The proceeds are to go the United Nations Foundation to support HIV/AIDS relief programs in Africa conducted by The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The sale at Sotheby’s (1334 York Avenue) will be preceded by a preview exhibition of the works at Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea (522 W. 21st Street) from February 4th to 13th, 2008. A dedicated website will be posted in mid-December and a special catalogue for the sale will be available from mid-January. The estimate for the auction is expected to be in excess of $40 million.

Damien Hirst contacted over 100 of the world’s leading artists to ask them to contribute works for the auction inspired by the colour red. The response has been exceptional, with offers of major works from Matthew Barney, Georg Baselitz, Cecily Brown, Douglas Gordon, Antony Gormley, Subodh Gupta, Andreas Gursky, Sir Howard Hodgkin, Gary Hume, Jasper Johns, Anish Kapoor, Anselm Kiefer, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Marc Newson, Tim Noble & Sue Webster, Richard Prince, Marc Quinn, Ed Ruscha, Yinka Shonibare, Sam Taylor-Wood, Keith Tyson and Bernar Venet, among others.

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