David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane Set to Break Record as Most Expensive Album Art Ever Sold
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Historic Photograph Heads to Auction
The original image for David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane album is expected to become the most expensive album artwork ever sold when it is auctioned in October. The striking photograph of Bowie with a lightning bolt painted across his face carries an estimate of £300,000, which could surpass the record set by Led Zeppelin’s debut album artwork that sold for $325,000 in 2020.
Shot by celebrated photographer Brian Duffy, the image stands among rock’s most recognizable visuals. Duffy was part of the influential “terrible trio” with David Bailey and Terence Donovan, who helped define London’s cultural scene in the 1960s. The Aladdin Sane portrait is the centerpiece of a Bonhams sale featuring 35 items from the Duffy archive.
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Rare Items in the Collection
The auction lot includes the stool Bowie sat on during the 1973 photo shoot, the original Hasselblad 500C camera used by Duffy, and a contact sheet from the session—one of only two known to exist. Another highlight is the original inside artwork, a full-length image of Bowie as Aladdin Sane that served as a centrefold for the first 5,000 records sold. That piece alone carries an estimate of £150,000 to £200,000.
Claire Tole-Moir, Bonhams’ head of popular culture, noted the image’s enduring power. “When most people think of Bowie it is Duffy’s image that flashes in their mind’s eye,” she 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.”
Global Recognition of the Image
Over the past decade, Duffy’s photograph has been seen by thousands worldwide. The Duffy archive loaned the Aladdin Sane artwork to the V&A Museum for its touring exhibition David Bowie Is, which became the museum’s most visited international show in its 165-year history. About 312,000 visitors viewed it in London before it traveled to cities including Toronto, São Paulo, Berlin, Chicago, Paris, Melbourne, Groningen, Bologna, Tokyo, Barcelona, and New York.
Last week, the V&A East Storehouse in London opened a new Bowie archive, further securing the image’s lasting legacy. The photograph also served as the centerpiece of the Southbank Centre’s 50th-anniversary exhibition for Aladdin Sane in 2023. Duffy’s son, Chris Duffy, famously called the image “the Mona Lisa of pop.”
Creative Process Behind the Icon
Chris Duffy shared that the signature lightning bolt was not part of the original plan. “The famous flash across Bowie’s eyelid was originally a tiny emblem on his cheekbone,” he told the Guardian, explaining how his father “grabbed some lipstick to draw an outline of a much bigger flash … and Aladdin Sane was born.”
The final image was further refined by Philip Castle, a Stanley Kubrick collaborator known for the A Clockwork Orange posters. Castle airbrushed Duffy’s photograph, added the watermark on Bowie’s shoulder, and touched up the eyelashes. Tole-Moir noted, “It’s a dye transfer print, which is basically one of the highest-quality types of prints that you can do. And at the time of its creation in 1973, it was the most expensive process that was really, really costly. So to have created it at that time was already a privilege.”
Continuing Bowie–Duffy Partnership
Duffy maintained a long creative relationship with Bowie beyond Aladdin Sane. He also shot the album covers for Lodger and Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), further cementing their artistic bond. The upcoming Bonhams sale of these rare artifacts will open on 22 October, offering fans and collectors a chance to own a piece of music history.
