French first lady wins case against nude image
After firm plastered her naked picture on its bags
France's First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has been awarded 40,000 euros ($57, 500) by a French court for damages from a company that sold bags emblazoned with a picture of her in the nude, when she was a fashion model.
The case was the latest in a series of legal actions over the presidential couple's image, which has drawn accusations of frivolity from critics of the media-savvy Sarkozys.
The bag in question features a black-and-white picture of Bruni-Sarkozy taken from a famous 1993 photo of the model standing upright in the nude that fetched $91,000 at a New York auction earlier this year.
"This bag makes use of Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy's image without her consent and for commercial gain," said Iqbal Akhoun, a spokesman in Saint-Denis for the first lady's lawyer Thierry Herzog.
The 40-year-old was initially seeking 125,000 euros ($167,000), which she said she would donate to charity.
The company that manufactured the bags had said they were entitled to use the photo because Bruni-Sarkozy is a public figure.