‘The Mona Lisa of Pop’: David Bowie’s ‘Aladdin Sane’ artwork set to break auction record

When you think of the late David Bowie, what image pops up into your head?

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Chances are you’re thinking about the ethereal portrait of the singer with a red bush of hair, eyes closed, and sporting the red-and-blue lightning bolt across his face – and no one would blame you.

This photo, taken by Brian Duffy, was on the front of Bowie’s sixth album, 1973’s ‘Aladdin Sane’. It remains one of the most enduring images of the singer’s career and possibly the most famous album photo in music history – also making makeup artist Pierre Laroche’s lightning bolt the most recognizable symbol in rock.

Bowie’s manager Tony Defries wanted the label RCA to spend huge amounts on the cover – especially after the worldwide success of Bowie’s previous album, 1972’s ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’. He insisted on a seven-colour printing system over the traditional four, leading to the album cover’s unique visual brilliance. At the time, it was the most expensive cover art ever made.

The image has endured for decades, and when Bowie died in 2016, the majority of the murals popping up around the world were of the ‘Aladdin Sane’ cover.

“My father’s image of Bowie is often called the Mona Lisa of Pop,” said Chris Duffy, son of Brian Duffy and the Founder and Managing Director of the Duffy Archive.

“It’s important to remember it was the result of a short studio shoot using film, which then had to be sent out for commercial processing. There were no instant digital images or photoshop then. It’s extraordinary how it’s lasted and been endlessly reworked. Wherever I go in the world, it’s always somewhere on a t-shirt.”

Now, a look back at Brian Duffy’s work, titled “The Mona Lisa of Pop: The Duffy Archive”, will put the famous image on display, alongside 34 other items from the Duffy archive.

The exhibition opens on 22 October in Bonhams auction house in London, UK, and will lead to the items – including the iconic ‘Aladdin Sane’ artwork – going up for sale.

The original album artwork is estimated at £250,000 to £300,000 (approx. €286,000-€344,000) which means it could become the most expensive album artwork ever sold – on track to beat the record set by Led Zeppelin’s debut album artwork, which sold for $325,000 (€275,400) in 2020, and definitely overlapping Elton John’s ‘Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy’ original artwork, which made $212,500 (€180,000) last year.

For reference, it may have a harder time beating the record for the most expensive album ever sold – Beatle Ringo Starr’s serial numbered No.0000001 copy of ‘The White Album’, which sold for a record-breaking $790,000 (€729,000) in 2015.

Still, we’re talking artwork rather than albums, so the ‘Aladdin Sane’ image could still set its very own benchmark.

The lot heading to Bonhams also includes the stool Bowie sat on for the Aladdin Sane shoot, as well as the full-length centrefold image of Bowie as Aladdin Sane that is also on the auction block with an estimate of £150,000 to £200,000 (€172,000 – €229,000).

The Duffy archive previously loaned ‘Aladdin Sane’ artwork to the V&A for the world-touring “David Bowie Is” exhibition, which opened in 2013 and ended in 2018.

Over its five-year run, it stopped at 12 museums around the world and became the V&A’s most visited international touring show in its 165-year history, attracting more than two million visitors.

Earlier this month, the V&A East Storehouse in London opened a new Bowie archive.

The David Bowie Centre opened to the public on 13 September. “The Mona Lisa of Pop: The Duffy Archive” will be on view in a free exhibition at Bonhams New Bond Street running from 22 October – 5 November.