Marilyn Monroe's 'lips' auctioned off

New York - An online-only auction of a trove of Andy Warhol's lesser, but often hitherto unavailable works, raised $2.3m at Christie's, with a lithograph of Marilyn Monroe's lips coming out on top.

The 1964 "I Love Your Kiss Forever Forever", featuring five different-colored sets of the screen siren's lips, led the auction results at $90 000.

The week-long Internet sale, which ended on Tuesday, more than doubled its pre-sale estimate for the 125 works offered, with bargain prices attracting 263 bidders and 1 500 bids from 36 countries, Christie's said.

Raise money for grants

It was the first of several online-only auctions of the Pop Art icon's work scheduled for 2013.

Some of the works on offer were estimated before the sale to go for as little as $600. Proceeds go to The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, which supports artists and non-profit art associations.

The results were worthy of "Warhol's democratising vision" said Michael Straus, chairperson of the foundation board.

The Warhol Foundation announced last year that it was dispersing its collection through Christie's to raise more money for grants. Some of the works will be donated to museums.

The inaugural auction in the series, a live event held at Christie's in New York on 12 November, raised $17m.