Bruni nude photo goes under hammer

Another nude picture from Carla Bruni's modelling days is expected to fetch a high price when it is auctioned next week in Berlin. The rare black and white image - which shows the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy lying on a bed, partially covered with a white sheet - is by the British-born fashion photographer Pamela Hanson. It was taken in 1994 when Bruni, then 26, was at the height of her modelling fame and dating Mick Jagger.
 
Only 10 numbered copies of Carla Bruni in Bed exist and the 16ft by 24ft print will have a reserve price of about £3,000 when it goes under the hammer at the Villa Grisebach Auction, as part of a sale of modern and contemporary photographs on June 4.
 
Last year another nude portrait of Bruni, Michel Comte's full-frontal photo, went for more than 20 times its pre-sale estimate at Christie's in New York, when an unnamed Chinese buyer paid $91,000. Meanwhile a nude sketch of Bruni is to be sold in Paris next month as part of an exhibition of glamour girls, called 'Pin-Up'.
 
Sarkozy is said to have "no issue" with naked photos of his wife being made public - "because he knows that the only images of his wife in existence are tasteful", a source at the Elysee Palace told France's news website Le Post. "Some may be nude, but she is a beautiful woman who was a model and only ever posed for pictures that had artistic merit." ·