Nude Madonna pic nets $37,000

LOS ANGELES - A nude photograph of Madonna, taken when she was a struggling dancer in 1979, was sold for $37,000 at auction - more than double the $15,000 it was expected to fetch, Christie’s auction house said Friday.

The buyer was identified as a European collector.

The picture, was taken by Lee Friedlander, who found then 20-year-old Madonna after placing an ad in a local paper. The explicit black- and-white picture and six others from the session appeared in a 1985 issue of Playboy.

Another risque photograph of Madonna by Helmut Newton sold for $18,750 at the auction. The image, which shows Madonna in lingerie next to a kneeling man, had been expected to fetch $15,000.