Naked Carla Bruni photo sold for £45,000

A naked photograph of Carla Bruni, France's first lady, has sold at auction for more than 20 times its expected price.

When the controversial snap - taken in 1993 by Michel Comte - went on sale at Christies auction house in New York, this week, it was expected to sell for around £2,000.

But a Chinese art collector paid £45,000 for the image, one of a 135 being sold by German-born collector Gert Elfering. Shots of Kate Moss and Gisele Bundchen in their birthday suits were also going under the hammer.