Sotheby’s First Hip Hop Auction: Tupac Shakur’s Love Letters, Notorious B.I.G's Crown Up For Bidding

Sotheby’s in New York is changing its beat with an auction entirely dedicated to hip hop. About 120 lots representing hip hop artifacts, jewelry, fashion and fine art, from the late 1970s through to the mid-1990s, will be showcased for the September auction.

Personal items from the late rap icons, including Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur, will be part of the auction. The Brooklyn-bred lyricist's signed crown, worn in the 1997 “King of New York” photograph, will headline its Sept. 15 live auction.

“After 23 years in my possession, I’m very excited to share this iconic piece of Hip Hop history with the public,” the shoot’s photographer, Barron Claiborne, said. “With the tragic events that unfolded just days after the photoshoot, this image of a crowned Notorious B.I.G. became much more than a portrait — the image transformed Biggie Smalls into an aristocratic or saint like figure, forever immortalized as not only the King of New York, but a king of Hip Hop music and one of the greatest artists of all time.”

The international auction house said Tuesday the crown could fetch $200,000 - $300,000.

“I expect that the crown could sell for a lot more because it’s so recognizable,” Cassandra Hatton, the senior Sotheby’s specialist in the books and manuscripts department who put the auction together, told Reuters. “Anybody who lived through the ‘90s knows Biggie’s crown. It’s been on T-shirts, it’s been on the covers of magazines, it’s so iconic,” she said.

Another auction highlight is a deeply personal archive of 22 autographed love letters written by a 16-year-old Shakur to a high school sweetheart and fellow student at the Baltimore School for the Arts. The love letters are expected to bring in between $60,000 and $80,000.

The auction house said that the majority of items featuring in the hip hop auction have been consigned directly by artists or their estates. The full contents of the auction will be announced at a later date.

“Since its birth in the Bronx in the 1970s, Hip Hop has become a global cultural force, whose massive influence continues to shape all realms of culture: music, fashion, design, art, film, social attitudes, language, and more,” Sotheby’s vice president and specialist Cassandra Hatton said with the announcement.

“This sale is a celebration of the origins and early eras of that influence,” Hatton continued. “We are pleased to announce the auction with two renowned and beloved icons whose lives and lyricism continue to resonate — Biggie and Tupac — with lots that offer an introspective look, in their own way, at the personalities behind their respective public personas.”