Lance Armstrong may make at least $4 million for charity by selling the Damien Hirst-decorated bike he’ll use to complete the Tour de France at the weekend, as well as works given by Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha and other artists.

The racing bicycle may fetch more than $1 million alone when it is sold with five others at Sotheby’s New York in October. The rest will be raised by an exhibition now in Paris.

Armstrong will be riding the Hirst bike down the Champs- Elysees on the final stage of the Tour on July 26. The racer adorned with butterflies is one of six featuring designs by contemporary artists that Armstrong has ridden in his comeback year as part of Stages, a global art exhibition to raise funds for his campaign against cancer. The event is a collaboration between the Lance Armstrong Foundation and Nike Inc., said wwww.livestrong.org, the cyclist’s charity Web site.

“Studying and collecting art has been a passion and a pleasure for many years,” Armstrong says on the Stages site. “In retirement, I was finally able to focus on it more deeply. It was during this time that an idea arose to offer artists a forum in which to convey the Livestrong ideals.”

He has returned to racing after a three-year break. In 1996, aged 25, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He has since achieved a record seven straight victories in the annual Tour de France and after stage 16 is currently lying second in this year’s overall standings.

Street Artist

Armstrong, now 37, rode a bike with a “stroboscopic” rear wheel designed by Marc Newson when finishing 10th in the Tour’s opening time trial on July 4. His “daily driver” during the grueling three-week-long, 21-stage contest has been a Madone bike decorated by New York street artist Kaws. Others were embellished with designs by Shepard Fairey, Yoshitomo Nara and Kenny Scharf.

All six of the “art” bikes made by Trek Bicycle Corp. will be auctioned by Sotheby’s at the Park Avenue Armory, New York, on Oct. 2, the anniversary of Armstrong’s cancer diagnosis. All the proceeds of the sale will benefit Livestrong. As yet, no presale estimates are available.

Representatives from Trek will be meeting Sotheby’s to discuss the valuations of the Stages art bikes. Jamie O’Shea, a communications consultant speaking on behalf of Trek, said in an interview that the Hirst design may be a million-dollar bike.

Wool Donation

In addition, Paris art dealer Emmanuel Perrotin is hosting a selling show of 21 works by Prince, Ruscha, Christopher Wool and other contemporary artists who have donated pieces to Armstrong’s campaign with a value of $3 million. All six of Stage’s artist-designed bikes will also be included in the display from July 28.

Andreas Gursky’s 2007 photograph “Tour de France I,” priced at $30,000, is one of 10 works that have already sold to benefit the Livestrong charity, Carole Wagemans, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin’s press officer, said in an interview.

The most expensive work in the exhibition is the 10-foot- wide drawing, “Tree With Yellow Blossoms,” by the Chinese gunpowder artist Cai Guo-Qiang, marked at $720,000.

Richard Prince’s painting “I’m Not Coming Home,” specially made for the charity and combining his themes of nurses and jokes, costs $650,000. The Stages exhibition in Paris runs through Aug. 8.

Hirst raised 111.5 million pounds ($178 million) selling his works at Sotheby’s London in September. He is known for his platinum, diamond-crusted skull, animals in formaldehyde and spot paintings.