Her body and iconic looks have made her one of the world's highest earning supermodels. But it seems Kate Moss has added millions to her value courtesy of a bit of artwork on her lower back. The 38-year-old has revealed that late, world-renowned artist Lucian Freud drew two tiny swallows at the base of her spine after she befriended him in 2002.
In a recent interview, the blonde beauty recalls being fascinated to learn that Lucian tattooed sailors during his stint in the navy.
"He told me about when he was in the Navy, when he was 19 or something, and he used to do all of the tattoos for the sailors. And I said, 'Oh my God, that's amazing,'" she told Vanity Fair. "And he went, 'I can do you one. What would you like? Would you like creatures of the animal kingdom?' "I said I liked birds and he replied, I've done birds.
And he pointed down at a painting of a chicken upside down in a bucket to which I replied, "No, I'm not having that." We decided to do a flock of birds." And Kate is now aware that the inking could be worth a small fortune, especially considering the portrait artist was widely considered to be one of the best artists of the 20th Century.
"I mean, it's an original Freud. I wonder how much a collector would pay for that? A few million? If it all goes horribly wrong I could get a skin graft and sell it! It's probably the only one on skin that's still around." Kate got to know the artist in 2002 when she agreed to pose nude for him while pregnant with her daughter Lila Grace.
The pair (pictured together above) were introduced when Lucian was 88 after she named him as the person she would most like to meet. She later said in an interview: "I went to his house and he started [the nude painting] that night. Couldn't say no to Lucian. Very persuasive. I phoned Bella [his daughter] the next day and said, 'How long is it going to take?'. "She said: 'How big is the canvas?'. I said, 'it's quite big.' She said: 'Oh dear, could take six months to a year."
The painting eventually took around nine months to complete, with Kate spending seven nights a week, from 7pm to 2am, posing for him. It was later sold to an anonymous bidder at auction for £3.9m.