Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery

In search of new ideas for the album cover of their fourth studio album, Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Swiss promoter Gustav Zumsteg suggested the artist HR Giger.

When the band then visited Zurich in April 1973 as part of their European tour, Keith Emerson and Gustav Zumsteg visited the artist at his home after a concert. Keith Emerson was so enthusiastic about the work that he convinced his bandmates Greg Lake and Carl Palmer to take a look at it. Together they visited the artist again and immediately decided on two works "Work 217: ELP I" and "Work 218: ELP II", which roughly corresponded to the actual size of a vinyl record cover.

Until today, unfortunately, both original paintings that served as a template for the cover "Work 217: ELP I" and "Work 218: ELP II" are untraceable. Presumably they were stolen after the end of an exhibition of HR Giger's works in 2005 in Prague. A finder's reward of $5000.00 each is offered on HR Giger's official website.

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Source: How HR Giger and ELP created the Brain Salad Surgery cover | Louder (loudersound.com)