AFTER a frenzied bidding war, the first photo of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s twins have been unveiled on US celebrity website, People.

People magazine secured the exclusive rights to the photographs of Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon for a rumored record price of $US14 million ($15 million) in a joint deal with Britain’s Hello! magazine. The money will be donated to charity.

People magazine released the photo, a cover shot, of the twins on its website at 9.25am (AEST) today.

The magazine quotes Jolie as saying: “It is chaos, but we are managing it and having a wonderful time.”

The twins were born one minute apart on July 12 in Nice, France.

The Associated Press quoted an unnamed source saying People had paid $US14 million ($15 million) for the rights with the cost to be split with Hello!, but the mags have not confirmed the price tag.

Photographic agency Getty Images has confirmed it did the highly sought-after photo shoot of the twins with Jolie, Pitt and the couple’s four other children - Maddox, Zahara, Pax and Shiloh. The staged shoot thwarted the best efforts of paparazzi to get the valuable first shots.

The price for the celebrity baby photographs is more than double the $US6 million People paid for Jennifer Lopez’s twins on a March cover.