Former Watford FC owner and lifelong Hornets fan Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish are set for a £600,000 windfall next month when they sell a painting at an auction in France.

The untitled 6ft by 9ft picture is by the late American pop art exponent Andy Warhol and tragic American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who was only 27 when he died of a heroin overdose on August 12,1988.

The acrylic, silkscreen and oil on canvas work is now set to fetch between 700,000 Euros and one million Euros - £560,000 to £800,000 - at Sotheby’s in Paris on June 7.

Sir Elton said: “I react to art instantaneously.I know within moments if I am responding to it,if I love it and this makes it rather easy to be very decisive about whether I want to purchase a piece.

"In fact,if I don’t have an immediate reaction to a piece within the first minute, I will never have a reaction to it.”

Sotheby’s spokesman: “Over the years, Sir Elton and his husband David Furnish have built up an extensive collection of contemporary art by iconic artists of the last five decades, including Willem de Kooning, Louise Bourgeois, Gilbert & George, Tracey Emin, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Both visionary and inspired, the collection of Sir Elton John and David Furnish is not thus only a remarkable collection by its scope and quality,but also the result of a passion which says much about them.”

Sir Elton owned Watford FC for eleven years, from 1976 until 1987, one of the most successful periods in the club’s history.

According to the 2016 Sunday Times Rich List he is worth around £280 million.

Even though he will be seventy next year Sir Elton last year he performed 104 concerts and private events. He is an avid collector and owns around 7,000 rare vintage photographs, some of which will be exhibited at the Tate in London in November.