The original artwork for one of the most recognisable of David Bowie’s classic albums will be sold on November 5, Bonfire Night, in London.
The portrait of Bowie with a lightning bolt across his face was shot by Brian Duffy for the cover of Aladdin Sane and will be sold at Bonhams in London.
It is tipped to realise £300,000, and could easily exceed the $325,000 paid in 2020 for the original artwork from Led Zeppelin’s debut album, a black-and-white image based on photographs of the German Zeppelin Hindenburg as it burst into flames while attempting to land in New Jersey in 1937.
Aladdin Sane was David Bowie’s sixth album, released in 1973.
Brian Duffy was one of the most important British fashion and pop-culture photographers of the 1960s. He started working for fashion magazines from the late 1950s, and was rated alongside David Bailey and Terence Donovan as one of the house photographers of Swinging London.
You can also buy the camera used to take the picture and the stool Bowie sat on during the shoot. Image courtesy of Bonhams.
He worked with Bowie for eight years after this shoot, creating several other album covers.
In 1979, Duffy, who went on to work in video direction, tried to burn his collection of negatives, but was stopped by complaints about the smell.
Bonhams are selling 13 items from the Duffy archive. The cover image is an original dye transfer artwork print. It has an estimate of £250,000 to £300,000. The inside gatefold cover image is expected to make between £150,000 and £200,000. The camera used to take the pictures, a Hasselblad 500C, is for sale for up to £15,000.
Claire Tole-Moir, Bonhams’ head of popular culture, said: “The only other artworks at this sort of significance were the original artwork by George Hardie for Led Zeppelin’s debut album and Elton John’s Captain Fantastic, which made $212,500. So it’s right up there.”
