Mary Dowd of Myers Fine Art auction house adjusts an Andy Warhol drawing of Martin Burgoyne Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2014 in St. Petersburg, Fla. Burgoyne was a British-born artist, who was Madonna’s roommate in Manhattan and a key figure in her career before she became famous. He died of AIDS in 1986. His parents are auctioning off a collection that is like a 1980's time capsule. It includes art from Andy Warhol and Keith Haring and pencil drawings for the cover of Madonna's "Burning Up” album, along with several photos of a young Madonna before she became famous. The auction will take place Feb. 9, 2014. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
January 22, 2014 - 1:59 AM
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Long before Newsweek called her a "tarted-up floozy," way before she married and had babies and adopted babies, and a lifetime before she opened an Instagram account, Madonna was a young woman in New York trying to make it big.
That ambition — and a good bit of innocence — is seen in a collection of photos, art and drawings that will be auctioned Feb. 9 in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The collection is owned by the parents of Martin Burgoyne, an artist and Madonna's best friend of that era.
Burgoyne and Madonna befriended each other before she became famous. They were roommates, and he played a huge role in Madonna's early career, managing her first tour.
Burgoyne contracted AIDS and died in 1986. He was 23.
News from © The Associated Press, 2014