This week, a settlement was approved by the Mapplethorpe Foundation.

On Monday, the Mapplethorpe Foundation, the main beneficiary of the estate, approved the settlement.

Proceeds from the sale, which are expected to be about $3 million, are to go to the Mapplethorpe Foundation to benefit AIDS research and the photography collections of major museums.

T-shirts and posters have been licensed by the Mapplethorpe Foundation for sale at most of the museums where the touring show appears.

The Mapplethorpe Foundation provides money for medical research in the areas of H.I.V. and AIDS in addition to its support of photography programs.

But Michael Stout, the head of the Mapplethorpe Foundation, said that through the committee "we will have a voice" in the museum's activities in the medium.

Mr. Stout, responding for the Mapplethorpe Foundation, said yesterday: "That's an absurd statement.

The Mapplethorpe Foundation, he said, was the largest lender to the show, "maybe 70 percent."

"Derrick Cross," a striking gelatin silver print by Robert Mapplethorpe of a muscular arm ($7,000 to $9,000), was donated by the Mapplethorpe Foundation.

The other members are Michael Ward Stout, President of the Mapplethorpe Foundation, and Audrey Irmas, a collector well-known on the West Coast.