An early full frontal, black and white, nude photograph of pop music superstar Madonna circa 1979, much before she became the big name she is today, fetched an auction price of $37,500, over double its pre-sale estimate of $10, 000 - 15,000.

The photograph of the 20-year old Madonna, taken photographer Lee Friedlander and one of some 150-images of fashion and celebrity icons from the collection of Leon and Michaela Constantiner, was acquired by an unnamed European buyer at Christie's New York auction,.

Taken at a time when as a struggling dancer Madonna, then known as Madonna Louise Ciccone and trying to make ends meet in New York, answered an advertisement looking for a nude model, perhaps, earning as little as $25 for the 1979 photo shoot. Lee Friedlander talking about the photo session, said Madonna: 'seemed very confident, a street-wise girl. She told me she was putting a band together but half the kids that age are doing that. She was a good professional model.'

Later, when hits, such as, 'Like a Virgin' and 'Holiday' made Madonna famous, the explicit black and white photo plus six others from the same shoot were published in Playboy magazine in 1985.

According to Christie's, Madonna's nude photograph went for less than Helmut Newton's 1990 picture of Madonna dancing on a bar with a beer bottle, which sold for $96,000 at auction in 2005.