Thousands of snapshots by pop art icon Andy Warhol have been donated to smaller U.S. museums and galleries. (Evening Standard/Getty Images) Thousands of Andy Warhol's snapshots — including photos of celebrities, still lifes, outdoor scenes and nudes — have been added to the permanent collections of dozens of small museums and galleries across the U.S.

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has sent out more than 28,000 of the pop art icon's photos, estimated to be worth $28 million US.

The donations — sent out to more than 180 smaller galleries and college or university museums — are a gift from the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program, which started distributing the pictures in 2007.

"I think most people are familiar with [Warhol's] paintings and even the sculptures," said program curator Jenny Moore.

"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."

Each institution receives a mix of Warhol's Polaroid snapshots and black-and-white photos from the 1970s and 1980s.

Avid shutterbug

The Pittsburgh-born artist — best known for creating striking paintings, silkscreens and prints that elevated everyday items like Campbell's Soup cans or famed celebrity faces — was an avid photographer who snapped pictures to chronicle events and also to serve as inspirations for his later artworks.

He kept his thousands of photos in a vast collection of boxes also packed with letters, receipts, gifts and other ephemera. For years, archivists and curators have been poring through this collection.

Warhol, who died in 1987, indicated that he wanted his namesake foundation to help advance visual art.

"This is something he would have been very excited about," Moore said.

With files from The Associated Press