The bargain-hunter's Carla Bruni nude photo

What a bidder paid for a picture of the French First Lady naked

An anonymous bidder paid $19,600 for a nude photo of Carla Bruni, said Amy Odell in New York. Organizers of the auction in Germany said they were surprised that the image sold for four times the estimated price, but—come on!—this was a bargain. The photo shows "the First Lady of France lying naked on a bed," after all, and another Bruni nude sold for $91,000 last year at Christie's.

Not only did this 1994 nude photo of Carla Bruni sell for much less than the last one, said Amateur Photographer, but it was outdone by a 1953 portrait of Marilyn Monroe. The photograph of the late actress—who was fully clothed—sold for nearly twice as much, "upstaging the much-publicized photograph" of Bruni.

Still, nude photos of Carla Bruni have been all the rage, said Mayer Nissim in Digital Spy, since the former fashion model started dating French President Nicholas Sarkozy. So much so that Bruni has had to file a lawsuit to stop a clothing company from "using a naked image of her on its handbags."

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