Dalí nude sells for 266,500 dollars in Playboy auction

The nude, painted by Dalí in 1966 at the magazine's request, has hung on the wall in Hugh Hefner's famous Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills (Califormia) for decades and is an artistic impression of the magazine's cover girls.

In Christie's special auction of 'Playboy' art, Dalí's painting exceeded its initial valuation of between 100,000 and 150,000 dollars, but was not the painting that fetched the highest price on the day, with that honour going to 'Mouth 8' by American Pop artist Tom Wesselmann (1931-2004) which was sold for 1,874,500 dollars.

Photos of some of the magazine's most famous cover girls were also auctioned, with the photo of Marilyn Monroe used on the front cover of the first edition of Playboy magazine, being sold for 14,000 dollars.  A series of six photos taken by Tom Kelley in 1949, in which a nude Monroe was immortalised against a red velvet background, were sold for 13,750 dollars, considerably more than the 7,000 dollars they were expected to fetch.

Photos of Pamela Anderson and Elle MacPherson were also auctioned off, and a semi-nude of Brigitte Bardot used on the cover of the March 1958 edition of 'Playboy', that was expected to sell for between 4,000 and 6,000 dollars, went for 23,750 dollars.