Andy Warhol photos are donated to US colleges

Andy Warhol died in 1987

Photos belonging to artist Andy Warhol - valued at $28m (£17m) - have been donated to colleges and university museums across the US.

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, based in New York, said the collection included celebrity snapshots, still lifes and nudes.

It is thought a lot of the pictures helped inspire his work.

Curator of the foundation, Jenny Moore, said: "This is something he would have been very exited about."

She added: "This is a little-known body of Warhol's work.

"I think most people are familiar with the paintings, and even the sculptures, and we really wanted the chance to let a broader audience gain access to his photographic work, which is of course the basis of so much of his artistic production."

More than 180 colleges, university museums and galleries have benefited.

Each of the institutions has received about 100 polaroid and 50 black-and-white photos from the 1970s and 1980s.

Warhol, who died in 1987, was well known for his pop art which included using iconic US products such as Campbell's Soup Cans in his work.