Unseen Diana photo comes up for auction

WASHINGTON - Agence France-Presse

In the photo, Princess Diana lies in the lap of a an unidentified young man.

A previously unseen press photo of an apparently teenage Princess Diana deemed too hot to publish by a Londontabloid is coming up for auction in the United States later this month.

The black-and-white image from the dawn of the 1980s shows Diana, possibly in a ski chalet, smiling at the camera as she lies comfortably in the lap of a like-aged but unidentified young man reading a book.

By the window stands a bottle of Johnnie Walker whisky, but more intriguing are the words “not to be published” scrawled across the photo with the kind of grease pencil used by newspaper picture editors at the time.

On the back, the photo is dated February 26, 1981, two days after Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Prince Charles and the commoner then known as Diana Spencer.

Bobby Livingstone of RR Auctions of Amherst, New Hampshire said Jan. 2 that the photo comes from the private Caren Archive, which acquired it seven years ago when it bought out the photo library of Britain’s Daily Mirror newspaper.