Mapplethorpe’s Calla Lily (1984). Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s

A print of one of Robert Mapplethorpe’s most iconic images, a white lily, is set to bring in a huge sum in an upcoming auction at Sotheby’s. Mapplethorpe’s photograph could fetch $80,000.

Taken in 1984, Calla Lily is part of a flower study that is perhaps Mapplethorpe’s most famed series of photographs outside his more controversial images of male nudes. The lily image was famously used for the cover of a catalog for the 1988 retrospective exhibition, The Perfect Moment, which showcased photographs deemed obscene by conservative lawmakers nation-wide.

The photograph is part of a larger Sotheby’s auction that seeks to trace the history of photography through exhibits from some of the most influential photographers, including Robert Frank, William Eggleston and Irving Penn.

“This sale includes works by world-renowned artists who have pushed the boundaries of photography from Eugene Atget in the 1920s to Mitra Tabrizian in this century,” said Simone Klein, head of photographs at Sotheby’s.

The famous photograph from Atget, considered by many to be the first Modernist photographer, is a 1921 Henri Cartier Bresson-lookalike of a French prostitute.

The photography auction will be held at Sotheby’s in London on May 20.