A collection of 56 large format prints of Marilyn Monroe taken by the celebrated American photographer Bert Stern were sold over the weekend to an unnamed fan for €120,000 (US$135,000).
Up until his death in 2013, Stern was considered one of the most respected portrait photographers working in the industry. His subjects included Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Kate Moss and Madonna. But his intimate shoot with Monroe is considered one of his finest. Stern said of it: “I was preparing for Marilyn’s arrival like a lover, and yet I was here to take photographs,” said Stern. “Not to take her in my arms, but to turn her into…an image for the printed page.”
Marilyn Monroe /Stern
Taken in 1962, at what has become known as ‘The Last Sitting’ shoot, these images were some of the last taken of Marilyn Monroe before her death. The shoot has taken on a mythical quality over the years – it was commissioned by Vogue and took place over three sessions. Six weeks after the shoot, Marilyn died of an overdose.
Stern published a selection of photos from the shoot in a book called The Last Sitting in 1982, followed by a completed edition including all 2,571 pictures in 2006. Among these images are some bearing a red cross because the star herself had marked on the contact sheet the images she didn’t like.
Marilyn Monroe /Stern
The images have not only become iconic in their own right, but have become a standard for Hollywood shoots. Stern himself recreated elements of the shoot with Lindsay Lohan in 2008. Photographer Sandro Miller, included it in his Homage recreations series with John Malkovich.
The sale of the 56 prints took place at the 14th WestLicht Photo Auction in Vienna. The lot consisted of 28 gelatin silver prints and 28 chromogenic prints, the majority of which were printed in 1992, and most having been signed by Stern himself. The images were the highest selling lot at the auction far surpassing their estimated price of €60,000 (US$67,700). Last month, a single Monroe picture by photography master Richard Avedon sold for £77,000 (US$109,000). The Austrian auction house says that the sale reflects the fact that “…Marilyn Monroe’s appeal remains unbroken even 55 years after her passing.”
(Pictures courtesy of WestLicht Auction House)