Editor’s Note
The iconic “Aladdin Sane” album cover photograph, a defining image in pop culture, has sold at auction for £381,400. This brief details the sale of what has been called the “Mona Lisa of Pop.”
The original print of the cover image photograph from the David Bowie album “Aladdin Sane” has been sold in a London auction for £381,400 (including premiums).
Billed as the “Mona Lisa of Pop,” the image, by photographer Brian Duffy (who worked as Duffy), was sold by Bonhams on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 5.
The picture featured on the cover of Bowie’s 1973 album “Aladdin Sane,” the singer’s first as an established star. It played a major role in Bowie’s chameleonic image, marking the end of his Ziggy Stardust character. It went into the sale with a £250,000 to £300,000 estimate.
Before today, the most valuable original artwork from a record album was the $325,000 paid in a 2020 sale for the design from the Led Zeppelin debut. Now, the Bowie image takes that crown.
— Claire Tole-Moir, head of Bonhams’ popular culture department
— Chris Duffy, son of Brian Duffy and manager of the Duffy Archive
It was auctioned with other items from the archive. The stool on which Bowie sat during the shoot made just over £2,800. The items for sale captured much of the creation process for one of the most famous images of the pop age.
Brian Duffy came to fame in the early 1960s as a fashion and portrait photographer who was closely associated with the Swinging London phenomenon. He worked with Bowie on “Aladdin Sane” and a number of subsequent albums. In 1979, he turned his back on photography and attempted to burn his negatives, a destruction that was halted by local council officials responding to a pollution complaint.