**** photo of French first lady sells in New York for $91,000
Bloomberg News
Friday, April 11, 2008
PARIS: A **** photograph of Carla Sarkozy, France's first lady,
fetched $91,000, almost 20 times its high estimate, at Christie's
International in New York today.
The image of Sarkozy, previously Carlo Bruni, an Italian singer and
former model, had an estimated range of $3,000 to $4,000. President
Nicolas Sarkozy of France married Bruni in February after divorcing
his second wife, Cecilia, in October.
Alex Cao, a dealer at China Square Gallery in Chelsea, bought the
photo, which cost $91,000 including fees. Cao was bidding on behalf of
a Chinese collector, Christie's said.
The black-and-white photo, taken in 1993 by Michel Comte, was part of
a 135-lot sale from the collection of Gert Elfering.
The auction tallied $4.27 million with fees, surpassing its high
estimate of $3 million, as buyers competed for **** photos of models
Kate Moss, Gisele B=FCndchen and Naomi Campbell.
"It's not a terribly challenging group of pictures," said Rick Wester,
a private art dealer who specializes in photography. "It's more
titillating than anything else."
Proceeds from the Bruni sale will benefit Sodis, a Swiss organization
that provides drinking water in poor countries. Elfering's first
charitable selection, Fondation Kantha Bopha, a children's hospital in
Cambodia, rejected his offer because it would "trivialize" the
organization, its founder said.
Elfering will keep the rest of the proceeds, Christie's said.
Women in Heels
In the sale, 84 percent of the lots sold, many above their high
estimates.
The top lot was Helmut Newton's "Sie Kommen (****d and Dressed)," a
1981 diptych comprising two almost identical images of four women
marching in high heels. In one, they are ****d; in the other, they are
dressed. The two gelatin silver prints fetched $241,000 from a high
estimate of $180,000.
Irving Penn's 1999 photograph of the **** Bundchen was sold for
$193,000. It had a high estimate of $40,000.
David LaChapelle's color image, "Naomi Campbell: Have You Seen
Me?" (1994) shows the model on a tile floor with her legs in the air
while she pours milk from a carton over her ****d body. The dye-bleach
print fetched $29,800, more than three times its high estimate of
$9,000.
Today's auction represents the third group of photos from Elfering's
collection offered by Christie's since 2005. It is part of a week of
photography sales in New York. On Tuesday, Sotheby's sold Edward
Weston's photograph of his ****d wife, Charis, for $325,000.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/11/arts/12bruni.php
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