Andy Warhol portrait of OJ Simpson goes on auction block

This image released by Phillips shows “O.J. Simpson,” an acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas portrait of the Buffalo Bills running back in 1977. The portrait, which was in the collection of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and deaccessioned in 2011, will be auctioned, will be auctioned in New York on May 16. (Phillips via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — An Andy Warhol silkscreen portrait of O.J. Simpson is going up for auction. Part of Warhol’s famous “Athletes” series, the portrait spent 19 years in the possession of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which says it never displayed it. The Phillips auction house is billing the work as a rare instance of two major 20th century pop culture figures coming together. Now 75, Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of the double slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. He was found liable for the deaths in 1997 by a California civil court jury, and later served nine years in prison for armed robbery.