Monroe photos fetch $150,000

A COLLECTION of photographs of Marilyn Monroe taken for Vogue magazine the year she died has been auctioned in New York for nearly $150,000 (€104,000).

A spokeswoman for Christie’s auction house says the 36 photos taken by Bert Stern sold for $146,500 on Tuesday.

The pre-sale estimate was $100,000 to $150,000.

Christie’s says the photos from a 1962 shoot were the last professional images taken of Monroe before she died that year of a drug overdose. They ran in Vogue as a memorial.

They’re among more than 100 Monroe images being offered for sale at Christie’s.

The most famous lot on offer was Matty Zimmerman’s iconic picture of the Hollywood sex symbol posing over the updraft of a New York subway grating while in character for the filming of The Seven Year Itch in Manhattan on September 9, 1954.

The sale finished yesterday.

Also at Christie’s on Tuesday, four Helmut Newton photographs, titled They’re Coming, Paris (Naked and Dressed), sold for $662,500.

The names of the buyers were not released by the auction house.

Monroe, whose real name was Norma Jeane Mortenson, became famous for her roles in a number of Hollywood movies, including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Bus Stop and The Prince and the Showgirl.

She died on August 5, 1962, from barbiturate poisoning.