France's First Lady Carla Bruni - Nude Portrait
Auction: France's First Lady Carla Bruni, in the portrait to be auctioned off by Christie's.
It's not the look you would normally associate with a First Lady. And the photographer who captured this image the new Mrs Nicolas Sarkozy - former model Carla Bruni - claims he has photos that are even more explicit. The print, taken during her modelling days by photographer Michel Comte in 1993, will go under the hammer at Christie's in New York next month. But Mr Comte, 53, said he took hundreds of pictures of the stunning Italian model over ten years of working together.
And he revealed: "I have many more nude pictures of Carla much more explicit than that one.
"But she need not worry as I would never put them on sale." He refused to give details of the nature of his more explicit photos of the former model, only adding: "I can assure you there are many more." Even so, the First Lady is understandably furious that a nude photo of her went on sale on the eve of her State visit to Britain with her husband. Experts say the renewed interest in her is likely to send its price up to £2,000.
But an aide to 40-year-old Mrs Sarkozy said: "Carla is very angry, not to say deeply upset, that a commercial organisation has chosen to release this print at such an important time.
"Her priority is to establish herself on the world stage as a first lady France can be proud of."
As well as being the first time that an image of a naked wife of a serving head of state has been sold for profit, it is being touted at a time when Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy and her husband President "Bling Bling" Nicolas Sarkozy are desperately trying to moderate their racy image.
The couple are due to arrive in the UK tomorrow for a two-day state visit. With the president's popularity ratings sliding at home, he hoped that rubbing shoulders with royalty and discussing high politics with Prime Minister Gordon Brown would help the process of restoring some of his fading popularity back home.
With that in mind, he has reportedly ditched his shades and Rolex watch - but the nude photos of his first lady might set the couple's battle for respectability back a notch.
Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy, whose long list of past lovers includes English rock stars Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, had pledged to use the state visit to establish herself as a serious consort.
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