Nude Madonna Photo Goes on Auction Block

01/16/2009 at 12:00 PM EST

A full-frontal photograph of Madonna taken in 1979 without any material on the Material Girl and then later published in Playboy is going public – for a price.

Christie's auction house in New York, which will hold its sale Feb. 12, expects the picture to go for $10,000, at the very least, the Associated Press reports.

Matthieu Humery, head of Christie's photography department, says Madonna was a financially strapped 20-year-old dancer when she responded to photographer Lee Friedlander's newspaper ad seeking a nude model. Her fee: $25.

Playboy published six photos from the shoot in 1985, though the one going on sale is "maybe the most explicit one," says Humery.
– Stephen M. Silverman

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