Marilyn Monroe’s Last-Ever Topless Photo Shoot up for Auction by Bonhams, Expected to Fetch £15,000

Photographs from the last ever photo session that former Hollywood glamour icon Marilyn Monroe posed for are now up for auction. The iconic photographs are expected to fetch up to £15,000 at the auction next month. The photographs were taken just six weeks before her death at the age of 36 in 1962.

The Daily Mail described it as "a complete set of rare vintage chromogenic prints from her last ever photo shoot"; the photos were taken by photographer Bert Stern for Vogue and from a session called "The Last Sitting".

"This is a very popular set. It is unusual to find a whole set and the owner has had them since they were printed. Because they've been displayed the colour has shifted slightly, or attenuated, which is what can happen to chromogenic prints. These were taken during Monroe's last ever formal photo shoot just a few weeks before she died, which is kind of sad. She was very photogenic and knew how to seduce the camera and she enjoyed posing because it took her mind off other things. Typically these sets are broken up and the pictures sold individually," Judith Eurich, from the auction house Bonhams, told the Daily Mail.

Meanwhile, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the film icon's tragic death, new photographs of her was released in a new book, "Marilyn by Magnum". The shots were taken by renowned photographer Philippe Halsman in Marilyn's apartment in 1952.

According to another report by the Daily Mail, Marilyn's "natural beauty and her famous blonde curls and curvy figure" were highlighted in the picture. The new book has photos taken by famous photographers like Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David "Chim" Seymour.

Marilyn Monroe was found dead in bed at her home in California in August 1962. The cause of death was recorded as "acute barbiturate poisoning", resulting from a "probable suicide".

The auction will take place on 8 May in New York.