Pictures of a topless Princess Diana were finding no sale Wednesday with Britain's tabloid newspapers that normally salivate over news of the royal family.
The topless pictures were being offered for purchase by a Spanish press agency, but the possibility of a lawsuit may keep them from publication in Britain.Most tabloid newspapers said they would not buy the snaps, and the Madrid-based Europa Press agency said any deal was now "on hold" while it considered its position.
The agency was reportedly asking $1.5 million for world rights to the pictures and $750,000 for the British rights.
The pictures were taken last weekend while the estranged wife of Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, was sunbathing in an exclusive hotel in Malaga, southern Spain.
"It's about the hottest potato that has turned up so far. (But) It is highly unlikely . . . that we will see these pictures in Fleet Street," said media watcher Jane Thynne of the Daily Telegraph.
"The only possibility would be if they were published in Europe and one Sunday paper so desperate for circulation decided to take a gamble and buy them up and print them here," Thynne said on Britain's Sky satellite television.
Britain's national newspapers pledged to respect Diana's privacy after after she announced in December 1993, a year after her separation from Prince Charles, that she was withdrawing from public life.
But newspapers were no doubt also taking into account the possibility of legal action and the threat of press restrictions.
Diana went on the offensive against media intrusions last year and launched a lawsuit against two tabloids that published photos of her in a leotard working out.