New York - A dozen previously unknown works of digital art created by much-loved pop artist Andy Warhol have been discovered by a computer club at an American university in his hometown Pittsburgh.
The images include a self-portrait and some of Warhol's best-known subjects, including Campbell's Soup cans, Botticelli's Venus and Hollywood sex symbol Marilyn Monroe.
The art was found by members of the Carnegie Mellon University computer club on floppy discs dating back to 1985 stored in the archives of The Andy Warhol Museum.
They show Warhol's early exploration of software imaging tools and show new ways in which the artist was years ahead of his time, Carnegie Mellon said. The files were stored in an unknown format, which the computer club's forensics experts had to unpick to unveil the 28 digital images, the university said. At least 11 have his signature and were judged to be Warhol's style by experts.
Another is damaged or partially corrupted but also appears to bear his signature, said associate professor of art at Carnegie Mellon Golan Levin. Two more appear to be in his style but do not have his signature and there are others whose authorship are not clear, Prof Levin said.
The discs were unearthed after New York-based artist Cory Arcangel learnt about Warhol's experiments with floppy discs from YouTube. He approached The Andy Warhol Museum in 2011 and then Carnegie Mellon, where the computer club has expertise in restoring vintage computers.
Warhol was one of the most influential American artists of the 20th century and his work continues to sell for record prices.
AFP