London  - Auction-goers with a penchant for celebrity will be able to snap up a momento from the opulently-furnished lakeside villa of late Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace at a sale at Sotheby's in London next week.

On offer are some 500 items from the spectacular neo-classical interior of Versace's Villa Fontanelle on Lake Como, ranging from paintings to furniture and silver works with an estimated value of 2 million pounds (2.75 million dollars), Sotheby's said.

The auction comes just weeks after the record-breaking sale in Paris of the private possessions of late French designer Yves Saint Laurent.

While not comparable in scale with the Saint Laurent auction, which netted a record 262 million dollars, Versace's villa is nonetheless linked to the glamour of weekend parties with the late Princess Diana, Madonna, Sting and Elton John.

"It is a great pleasure to orchestrate this remarkable sale of such a maverick of style whose taste and influence is epitomized in the Villa Fontanelle collection," said Mario Tavella of Sotheby's Thursday.

"This is the last opportunity to enter into Versace's world and buy something from a collection that is representative of his legacy," said Tavella at the opening of the pre-sale show where key items will be on public display.

Highlights of the sale include a spectacular life-size cast of Antonio Canova's Pugilists and a huge classical statue of naked wrestlers, which were both arranged in Versace's bedroom.

A pair of Italian cherry wood breakfront book cases by Karl Roos, based on an 1814 design by Giuseppe Valadier, is the lot with the highest single estimate of 120,000 pounds.

The oil painting Portrait of Major George Maule, which has been attributed to 18th century German neo-classical painter Johann Zoffany, is estimated to fetch up to 60,000 pounds, Sotheby's said.

The paintings on offer are, however, not comparable in value or provenance to the works by Matisse, Mondrian and Brancusi which were the centrepiece of the Saint Laurent sale.

Versace, who was shot dead in Miami in 1997, owned several homes, including in Milan and New York, but used Villa Fontanelle in Moltrasio to relax.

He created a magnificent interior in the neo-classical and empire style, with great attention paid to detail, such as spectacular mosaic floors and panelling.

"The house in Moltrasio is a Proust house, whereas the ones in Milano and Miami are more Batman... It is the house that really belongs to me, reflecting a mirror image of all that I am, for better or worse," the Italian designer once said. dpa