She is Hollywood’s most famous icon, rumoured to be the lover of an assassinated US president, and now two of the last photos taken of her alive are on sale in Hampstead.
Marilyn Exposed, a collection of exclusive photographs of Marilyn Monroe, opened to the public at Zebra One Gallery, in Perrin’s Court, last Friday, exactly 50 years after the assassination of her rumoured lover, US President John F. Kennedy.
The exhibition includes two rare images from Monroe’s final photo shoot before her death from a prescription drug overdose on August 5, 1962.
With the help of exhibition curator Raj Prem, gallery owner Gabrielle du Plooy has obtained two photos of Monroe taken by late American photographer Bert Stein during a shoot commissioned by Vogue magazine just six weeks before her death.
Zebra One is the first-ever British gallery to sell images from the shoot, which has since become known as The Last Sitting.
Mr Prem, a Hampstead resident and owner of Raj Prem Fine Art Photography, discovered and bought the images, both signed by Stein, from an art dealer in California, USA.
He said: “As far as I’m aware there are very few of these images available in the world. The reason they are so sought-after is because there are so few signed prints in circulation. They will go up and up in value.
“Marilyn is beloved by everybody, from all over the world. She’s not renowned as an actress, she’s renowned as an icon and great beauty.
“No male or female film star occupies the kind of Olympian stratum that she does. She’s absolutely unique, there’s no one like her and so for that reason we decided to do this exhibition.”
The most expensive image in the collection, which also includes photos of Monroe taken by acclaimed photographers Douglas Kirkland and Frank Worth, is a Bert Stein shot of Monroe looking over her shoulder in an open-back dress - priced at £11,000.
“It is one of Stein’s most famous images,” said Mr Prem. “Marilyn was on a cocktail of pills – uppers, downers, anti-depressants. She was psychologically and physically ravaged but, somehow, Bert Stein managed to bring out her glamour.”
For more information about the Marilyn Exposed exhibition, visit www.zebraonegallery.com
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