Amateur Photographer Magazine

Eric Clapton drug centre to win Leica M8 funds

Thursday 15th May 2008

Chris Cheesman

A drug and alcohol addiction recovery centre founded by music legend Eric Clapton is set to benefit from the sale of an historic Leica digital camera on 7 June.

Proceeds from the sale of the first Leica M8 camera ever made will be donated to the Crossroads Center in the Caribbean, said a spokesman for the Westlicht Photographica Auction in Vienna, Austria.

Auctioneers estimate that the 10.3-million-pixel camera will fetch up to €30,000 (around £24,000).

The auction house told us that a charity founded by Bob Geldof had initially been considered, but the German camera maker instead turned to Clapton who is described as a Leica camera 'fanatic'.

Located in Antigua, the Crossroads Center is a 36-bed residential facility set up by Clapton in 1997.

On the centre's website Clapton states: 'As a recovering addict and alcoholic, many people over the years spoke to me about the problems associated with drug and alcohol abuse on the islands. Subsequently, around 1993, I began to speak with more and more people about the possibility of founding a centre on the island for the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction.'

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