Nude Photograph of Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate Sold Over $11,000

Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski (ew.com)

At another auction after Hepburn’s dress collection, another rare item also sold with a good price.

As we previously reported, the rare item is a nude photo of filmmaker Roman Polanski and his wife, Sharon Tate, that was taken just months before she was brutally murdered. The black and white portrait has sold Monday at a New York City auction for $11,250.

The large-scale gelatin silver print was from an image taken by English photographer David Bailey in 1969, showing the couple embracing. The roughly 33-inch by 33-inch portrait was printed in 1988 for a traveling exhibition. The pre-sale estimate was $8,000 to $12,000.

Philippe Garner of auctioneers Christie’s said that the photographer knew Polanski very well, not least because he had ambitions himself to be a filmmaker and indeed in 1966 he ended up making a 30 minute short. The picture was sold to an unidentified private buyer.

The 76-year-old Oscar-winning director was arrested at the request of the United States when he flew into Switzerland on September 26 to receive a lifetime achievement prize at a film festival. Polanski is now under house arrest in Switzerland, pending a decision on a U.S. extradition request.

The United States wants him to face sentencing for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977. He fled the United States in 1978 while awaiting sentencing for his crime. He never returned to Los Angeles, where his actress wife, Tate, who was pregnant with their child, and four others were slain by followers of Charles Manson.

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