A naked photo of French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, featuring in a pigeon-toed pose and casing her assets with her hands got sold for $91,000 at New York based Christie, which is almost 20 times of its anticipated price. An anonymous Chinese art collector inked this neat deal by gaining the ownership of this black-and-white image shot by photographer Michel Comte in 1993. The photograph earned more hype since Bruni married French President Nicolas Sarkozy in February. The pre-estimate of auction was that it would fetch between $3,000-$4,000. The sale was a part of 140 photos from German collector Gert Elfering featuring master works by Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton and Peter Beard. Another much-in-news portrayal at Christie’s is an Avedon sketch of 1950s and 1960s French screen siren Brigitte Bardot sold for $181,000.

Via: Reuters / Critic Blog