Trove of Madonna pop culture from the 80s – photos, art, drawings – to be auctioned in Florida

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.