Both Roman Polanski and late wife Sharon Tate would never have expected that their simple nude photo together would appear as items up for auction. The said image features the imprisoned director and deceased wife with Tate posing in profile with her right arm over her husband’s shoulder, while Polanski wraps his arms around his wife’s torso.
Taken by English photographer David Bailey in 1969, it was first printed as part of a traveling photography exhibition in 1988. Later it was published again in Bailey’s own book “Goodbye Baby & Amen: A Saraband for the Sixties.” The new photo up for auction is a reproduced large-scale gelatin silver print approximating 33 by 33 inches in size.
Reportedly the controversial picture was taken months before pregnant Tate together and her four friends were killed in the couple’s Los Angeles home by followers of Charles Manson. Husband Polanski on the other hand earned the spotlight again for his highly publicized arrest in Switzerland 20 years after his conviction having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. The director of “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown” is currently held prisoner in Swiss jail awaiting a decision on a U.S. extradition request.
Vice president and photography specialist at Christie’s details how the profitable the image is saying, “It’s an important image. It certainly is provocative because of who the characters are. But it’s also a touching naked shot of a happy couple.”
The photo joins 200 other photos up for auction on December 7. The estimated price is between $8,000 to $12,000 however organizers have high hopes and belief that the image could sell at a much higher price considering the controversy and tragic history laced with the subjects of the photograph.
