Practical Photography

A Nude photograph of Madonna has been auctioned off and sold for $37,500, yesterday and is reportedly the highest price paid for a celebrity nude to date.

Christies auction house were delighted when the photograph of Madonna valued at $15,000 was sold to an unnamed european buyer for over double what they had expected.

The photograph taken of Madonna, was taken when Madonna Louise Ciccone (as she was known at the time) was a struggling dancer in New York trying
to make ends meet. She answered a newspaper advert (very desperately seeking Susan) to find a nude
model. We believe she only earned about $25 for the 1979 photo session.

Lee
Friedlander’s raw, explicit black-and-white image appeared in Playboy
in 1985. Friedlander has said of the photo session that Madonna “seemed
very confident, a street-wise girl. She told me she was putting a band
together but half the kids that age are doing that. She was a good
professional model.”

This was before Madonna was famous and has cetainly increased in value, although I am surprised it sold for so much as Madonna always seems to be getting her kit off.