French president Nicolas Sarkozy has started his first official visit to England, the day after it was reported that an auction house is to sell nude pictures of his new wife, the former supermodel Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Bruni-Sarkozy was attracting as much, if not more, attention than her husband during the two-day visit. Auction house Christie’s is to sell photographs of former model Bruni-Sarkozy, taken by Michel Comte in 1993, in New York next month. The French president’s office was quoted as saying the sale is a private matter. The British media has covered the president’s courtship of Bruni-Sarkozy and subsequent marriage in depth, with several using her visit as reason to reprint images from her modeling career. Many observers in France see the presidential trip as a bid by Sarkozy to regain some of the popularity that saw him elected last May. Since then, he has provoked controversy at home with his high-profile divorce from former wife Cecilia in October, followed by his relationship and marriage to Bruni-Sarkozy, a singer and former model.