France's first lady nude

It's hard to upstage actress Brigitte Bardot, unless you're the charismatic first lady of her country.

This nude portrait of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy pulled in a whopping 91-thousand dollars at a Christie's auction Thursday.

That's more than 20 times the expected price.

Josh Holdeman heads the photographs department at Christie's.

(SOUNDBITE)(English) JOSH HOLDEMAN, HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS DEPARTMENT, CHRISTIE'S, SAYING:

"WE REALLY DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT. WE ALL KIND OF WERE TRYING TO IMAGINE THIS MORNING WHAT IT WOULD GO FOR. WE HAD A NUMBER IN OUR HEAD, BUT THIS FAR EXCEEDED WHAT WE EXPECTED. IT WAS A VERY PLEASANT SURPRISE."

The buyer: an unnamed Chinese art collector.

Photographer Michel Comte took the black-and-white still during Bruni's modeling days 15 years ago.

She has become a favorite of the paparazzi ever since she married French president Nicolas Sarkozy in February.

Born in Italy, Bruni became a singer following her supermodeling days.

Just as she has taken a lot of attention away from her husband, her nude upstaged portraits of other supermodels that were expected to draw more dollars.

Oh, and as for Brigitte, her portrait by Richard Avedon fetched 181-thousand, twice that of Carla Bruni.

Fred Katayama, Reuters, New York.

upstage tr.v. up·staged, up·stag·ing, up·stag·es

1. To distract attention from (another performer) by moving upstage, thus forcing the other performer to face away from the audience.

2. To divert attention or praise from; force out of the spotlight: a vice president who repeatedly tried to upstage the president.

3. To treat haughtily.
whop·ping Slang

adj.Exceptionally large: "yet another whopping pay raise" Lee Atwater.

adv.Used as an intensive: a whopping good joke.