Nude Kate Moss portraits up for auction

updated 2:22 p.m. ET April 16, 2007

LONDON - Nude photographs of Kate Moss will be sold at an auction in London next month among a series of other pictures of the British supermodel.

The photos will be auctioned May 31, Christie’s auctioneers said Monday.

Two nude portraits, a 1996 print by Irving Penn and a 6-by-6-foot square image by Albert Watson, are expected to sell for about $44,000 and $30,000, the auction house said.

A set of six prints of Moss without makeup, taken by Chuck Close, could sell for up to $40,000, Christie’s said.

An unpublished photo, being sold by one of the 33-year-old’s friends, is expected to sell for about $12,000. The portrait, taken by photographer Corinne Day in 1990, was shot in London two years after Moss was discovered at a New York airport at age 14.

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Another shot taken by Day in 1993 for Vogue magazine, which features a 19-year-old Moss, is expected to sell for $14,000. The Vogue shoot helped propel the grunge movement into the mainstream and launch the “heroin chic” look in the 1990s.

Yuka Yamaji, head of photography for the auction house, called Moss “a cultural icon and arguably the most influential model of our day.”

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