REBEL WITH A COST: This print of James Dean is going for $3.5 million. -- PHOTO: COLLECTORS CONTEMPORARY

The show, called 100 Warhols Plus Twenty Servings Of Soup On The Side, features 120 artworks. Prices start at US$20,000, with the James Dean print, Rebel Without A Cause, being the most expensive.

The pieces are part of a private collection started nine years ago by the owners of art gallery Collectors Contemporary - art photographer Gary Sng and Alvin Koh, a doctor. They bought the Warhols from dealers in the United States and Europe, but now have no more room in their apartments.

The duo exhibited 100 Warhols in November last year to mark the 20th death anniversary of the artist.

Mr Sng, 44, says: 'Putting up this exhibition has been cathartic. It almost feels like we are letting go of our babies.'

He was drawn to Warhol's work in the 1980s when he was studying at the Academy of Arts in San Francisco.

RELATED LINKS  CLICK HERE TO SEE SOME OF ANDY WARHOL'S WORKS

'I have yet to see the work of any other artist who has fused commercialism and art and created such an impact,' he says.

Warhol, who died in 1987 of a heart attack at the age of 58, is a central figure in pop art, a movement which attempts to blur the boundaries between popular culture and high art.

Of the ultimate pin-up rebel James Dean, Warhol called him 'the damaged but beautiful soul of our time'.

Inspired by his look in the movie Rebel Without A Cause, Warhol created limited-edition prints and a few unique canvases featuring the actor.

The Warhol print of Dean for sale here is not the most expensive of his artworks you could be setting your sights on.

In May 2007, Liz, a portrait of actress Liz Taylor, fetched US$12.6 million at an auction in New York. And in November 2007, actor Hugh Grant sold Warhol's pop portrait of Taylor for US$23.6 million.

deepikas@sph.com.sg