`Pantsless' nude photo of Carla Bruni up for auction

A PHOTO of a 'pantsless' Carla Bruni goes under the hammer in London this afternoon, as France's First Lady fights off rumours that both she and her husband President Nicolas Sarkozy are having affairs.

A 25-year-old Bruni is photographed wearing no knickers in the 1992 portrait by Helmut Newton. The photo, which was published in Vanity Fair (above), was taken at Bruni's home in Cavalière, France and shows her leaning up against a mahogany piano while looking at family portraits. It is estimated at between £3,000 and £5,000.

It will go under the hammer at Phillips de Pury at 5pm today, as part of its 'Sex' auction. Other lots include a 1992 black and white nude portrait of former model Helena Christensen by Patrick Demarchelier and several nude portraits by photographer Rankin.

A second photo of Bruni, by the British-born fashion photographer Pamela Hanson, is also up for grabs. 'Carla Bruni Smoking', which shows Bruni in white bikini bottoms and her t-shirt pulled up, was run in a 1994 issue of French Vogue.

Bruni was clearly never shy of stripping off for the cameras during her modelling career. Last June one of Hanson's ten nude photographs of Bruni shot in 1994 was sold to an anonymous buyer for $19,600 at the Villa Grisebach Auktionen in Berlin.

Meanwhile in 2008 another nude portrait of Bruni, Michel Comte's full-frontal photo, went for more than 20 times its pre-sale estimate at Christie's in New York, when an unnamed Chinese buyer paid $91,000. (thefirstpost.co.uk)