LOS ANGELES, CA.- Julien’s Auctions presents “The Dionne Warwick Collection,” featuring more than 100 items from the life and career of the Grammy Award-winning pop icon, Kennedy Center Honoree, and one of the most-charted female vocalists in music history. From stage-worn clothing to fine jewelry and signed memorabilia, the auction offers an intimate look at Warwick’s iconic decades-long career.
Born Marie Dionne Warrick on December 12, 1940, in East Orange, New Jersey, Warwick grew up in a musical family; her mother and siblings sang together as the Drinkard Sisters, her aunt is gospel singer Cissy Houston, and her cousin was Whitney Houston. Warwick’s solo career took off in 1962 with “Don’t Make Me Over,” the first hit to come out of her partnership with songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, a collaboration that would go on to produce some of the most enduring songs in American pop, including “Walk On By,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Alfie,” and “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?, ” which won her the first of six career Grammy Awards.
She ranks among the most charted vocalists of the rock era, with 56 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962 and 1998, and has sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Warwick is also known for her humanitarian work: her 1985 duet “That’s What Friends Are For,” recorded with Elton John, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder, has raised millions of dollars for AIDS research. She received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2023, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2024.
Julien’s Auctions is now accepting bids at juliensauctions.com; the sale begins closing online only October 21st at 10 am PT.
Auction Highlights
Headlining the collection is an 18k white gold, colored diamond, and diamond ring gifted to Warwick by the Sultan of Brunei, centering on a fancy light brown diamond gauged at approximately 5.50 carats within a scrolling circular-cut diamond mounting and polished half hoop (Est. $8,000–$12,000), a rare piece of royal provenance from Warwick’s personal collection.
Also featured are three gowns spanning four decades of Warwick’s public life. A black and white silk organza Valentino evening gown, worn while performing in Australia in 1989, carries a leaf pattern throughout, horizontal pleats along the bodice, and an oversized black bow at the back (Est. $3,000–$5,000).
A vintage red embroidered Alfred Bosand gown and jacket traveled with Warwick across some of her most notable public appearances, from her October 1982 performance on the BBC’s The Late Late Breakfast Show to a 1992 benefit performance of “That’s What Friends Are For” alongside Whitney Houston, the May 2012 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize ceremony honoring Burt Bacharach and
Hal David, a 2022 performance at Stan Ponte’s 50th Finale Birthday Celebration in New York, and a 2023 appearance at the New York Restoration Project’s Halloween Gala (Est. $2,000–$3,000).
And a Gai Mattiolo Couture gown and blazer set, its bodice and sleeves finished in a geometric rhinestone pattern, carried Warwick through two decades of milestone appearances, including Michael Jackson’s 30th Anniversary Celebration at Madison Square Garden in September 2001, the MOBO Awards in London the following month, and her own induction as a 2023 Kennedy Center Honoree (Est. $1,500–$2,500). Rounding out the collection’s fine art is a Pablo Picasso etching titled “Serment des Femmes” (“Oath of the Women”), an illustration for Aristophanes’ play Lysistrata published in 1934 by The Limited Editions Club, numbered 129/150 and signed in pencil, lower left (Est. $4,000–$6,000).
Beyond fashion and fine art, the sale includes a Bulgari 18k yellow and white gold “Tubogas” wristwatch with a black circular dial and engraved Bulgari bezel (Est. $3,000–$5,000), along with a suite of platinum, turquoise, and diamond ear clips and a matching ring that Warwick wore while performing at the 2015 Latin Grammy Person of the Year tribute to Roberto Carlos at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas (Est. $3,000–$5,000).
The collection also preserves two pieces of chart history. A BPI-certified Multi-Platinum sales award, presented to Warwick in 1982 for UK sales of “Heartbreaker” and “All the Love in the World,” both written by Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees for Warwick’s 1982 album Heartbreaker, honors what remains Warwick’s best-selling solo single, with worldwide sales topping four million copies (Est. $500–$700). And a copy of Dionne Warwick in Valley of the Dolls, signed by Warwick in black marker to the front cover, marks the 1968 LP that went RIAA-certified gold and reached #6 on the Billboard 200, anchored by her Grammy-winning “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” (Est. $300–$500).
