Nude Photo of Carla Bruni Brings $75,000 at Auction

NEW YORK—A nude photograph of France's first lady Carla Bruni, a singer and former model, sold for $75,000 at Christie's in New York, reports Bloomberg. The amount was over twenty times the $4,000 high estimate for the black-and-white photo taken in 1993 by Michael Comte.

Overall, the auction of 135 lots from the collection of Gert Elfering brought in $4.27 million, surpassing its high estimate of $3 million, with 84 percent of lots selling and bidders driving prices for nude photos of models Kate Moss, Gisele Bundchen, and Naomi Campbell way above their high estimates. According to Christie's, money from the Bruni sale will be donated to charity, while Elfering will keep the rest of the proceeds. Helmut Newton's 1981 diptych Sie Kommen (Naked and Dressed) was the top lot, finishing at $241,000 above its high estimate of $180,000.