From Tiny Tim to Mickey Mouse and Mirka Mora, you can nab a treasure from Martin Sharp’s ‘dream museum’ in Bellevue Hill

Would you like to own the colorful suit of eccentric singer Tiny Tim? Or is it the Bob Dylan image that defined 1960s psychedelia? How about an early Mickey Mouse knit doll?

These are some of the items on offer when the eclectic contents of Wirian, Sydney artist Martin Sharp’s bohemian mansion, are put up for auction over two days in May.

Sharp, who died in 2013, achieved international Pop Art success with his vivid images of rock stars in the 1960s.

He filled his Bellevue Hill home with curiosities that fueled his art, transforming a reception room into what he called the Museum of Dreams.

Inside, glass cabinets were overflowing with items evocative of his obsessions, including Sydney’s Luna Park, Mickey Mouse, and American falsetto singer Tiny Tim, for whom he designed a frock coat and trousers made of musical notes.

The sale of about 500 items is expected to fetch around $400,000, says auctioneer Andrew Shapiro of Shapiro Auctioneers.

The sale is the beginning of the home’s auction. A date has not yet been set for the sale of the Victoria Road house, which was valued at $33 million two years ago.

The money from the sale of the contents and the house will provide scholarships to the artists.

Sharp was known primarily for his posters, prints and collages, but many of his original paintings will be up for auction.

His biggest ticket item is Babylon the Great Has Fallen, Has Fallen. Revelation 18 v.2It is expected to earn between $60,000-$90,000. The buyer will need plenty of wall space to hang the 184cm by 280cm piece.

Roslyn Sharp, the artist’s cousin and director of the Martin Sharp Trust, the charity that is overseeing the auction, says the auction includes works from Martin’s life.

“We have prepared a selected collection from his school days to the last years of his life.”

Sharp wanted Wirian to be preserved as an artist residence, a place to raise awareness of his work and the importance of his major obsessions, Luna Park and Tiny Tim. A foundation was established to do this under the terms of Sharp’s will.

Despite more than a decade of efforts, Sharp’s dream proved impossible to realize. His dream collided with the reality of being real estate rich but cash poor. Attempts to mobilize a philanthropist or a cultural institution did not materialize.

Roslyn Sharp says she and her cousin, director Sandy Sharp, tried to stay true to the spirit of Martin’s wishes.

“They can take that piece of Martin and know that they are contributing to people having an artistic opportunity,” he says.

Among the works to be sold at the auction are works by Sharp’s artist friends such as Mirka Mora, Peter Kingston, Peter Powditch and Garry Shead.

Sharp rarely held formal gallery exhibitions. When a visitor to the art-filled Wirian asked when Sharp would open an exhibition, the artist replied: “You sit in it.”

Organized by Shapiro Auctioneers, the auction will be held over two days in three categories: artworks, Dream Museum, decorative items and furniture.

“Going into Wirian is like an archaeological dig,” Shapiro says. “You’re looking at three layers, three generations in that house.”

A rare Wedgwood Mercury bust and artworks by Joy Hester and Donald Friend probably belonged to Sharp’s predecessors, as did much of the Jacobean Revival oak furniture made specifically for the home.

An only child, Sharp inherited Wirian from his maternal grandparents, prominent industrialist Stuart Ritchie and his wife Vera. The 1923 Arts and Crafts-style mansion had been their home since the mid-1930s.

Sharp moved to Wirian after her grandmother’s death in 1976, and the mansion became the center of her bohemian life.

There he ran a creative hothouse with a similar spirit to his Swinging London years at The Pheasantry in Chelsea and later at the Yellow House in Kings Cross. It was all full of art, music and people.

At Wirian you might encounter Marianne Faithfull, her former London flatmate Eric Clapton or Bob Geldof, as well as local artists and wandering eccentrics. His door was always open.

Sharp preserved her grandparents’ furniture and continued to use the kitchen’s original green-and-cream Kookaburra gas stove (also up for auction).

The dining room became his grandparents’ studio, where he painted, entertained, and smoked around the dining table, which was always strewn with papers, coffee cups, and overflowing ashtrays.

Sandy Sharp says she is optimistic about the future of the foundation and the contribution Martin Sharp’s legacy will make to Australia’s cultural life.

“This is the beginning of a new chapter,” he says.