Your art collection is coming along pretty well, but you can always use a little more black and white
photography. (And maybe a little more skin.)
Tomorrow, Christie's starts unloading German connoisseur Gert Elfering's eye-popping collection of
photographs of nude supermodels. The 135 pics span 20 years, so we thought to give you a hand finding your
way through it all. Allow us to help focus your auction strategy:
- Janet Jackson's famous hand-assisted Rolling
Stone cover, shot by Patrick Demarchelier in Miami in 1993. It's more pop culture history than art, so
Christie's only pegs it at $6,000-$9,000. Just hope Timberlake doesn't show...
- Irving Penn's silver-hued
portrait of a tousled and nude Gisele, from the good old days ('99) before her career-making role in
Taxi. Christie's is guessing $30,000, but you'll probably have competition...
- Richard Avedon's provocative
still of a breast-baring Lauren Hutton on Great Exuma island in the Bahamas circa 1968. This one has
improved with age, so you'd better steel yourself for a price tag upwards of $50,000. Then again, when
you're done with it, you can always auction it off...
There's also revealing peeks at
Kate
Moss,
Twiggy,
Christy
Turlington,
Carla
Bruni,
Naomi
Campbell,
Rita
Hayworth and
Brigitte
Bardot, along with less stirring shots of
Picasso,
Billie
Holiday,
Jack
Nicholson,
Lennon
& McCartney and... a bunch of grain elevators.
And if you think the $30K estimate is steep even for a naked Gisele, think of it this way: she's going to
cost Brady a lot more than that in the long run.
VITALS
Gert Elfering Collection Auction
20 Rockefeller Center
Midtown West
New York, CA
website