Yoko Ono's original typewritten manuscript for Grapefruit is expected to make $300,000-500,000 at Sotheby's December 5 auction.
The lot, comprised of 151 white Japanese "Apollo" postcards, is among a collection of texts making up the Fine Books and Manuscripts sale.
 The manuscript comprises 151 cards presented in a stainless steel box |
The lot features a number of handwritten annotations by the artist.
Published in an edition of 500 in 1964, Grapefruit features a set of event scores that contain instructions for the individual to enact and is considered one of the defining works of the Fluxus movement.
Fluxus emerged from John Cage's Experimental Composition workshops which ran between 1957 and 1959 and which Ono's then husband, Ichiyanagi Toshi, had attended.
It was led by the Lithuanian born artist George Maciunas, and was defined by its playful marriage of art, literature, music and performance into a celebration of the everyday that was heavily influenced by dadaism.
One of the cards, Morning Piece, features a signed dedication to Maciunas: "Dear George, Please use this piece whenever and wherever you need money for medicine. Since there is no country without a morning, you can use it anywhere you go. Yoko."
The work was also a major influence on conceptualism in its framing of art as an activity that could be performed by non-artists.
The cards were exhibited together for the first time in London in 2009.
PFC Auctions is currently offering this card signed by Yoko Ono.
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