{"id":7467,"date":"2026-02-28T13:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T13:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=7467"},"modified":"2026-02-28T13:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T13:49:11","slug":"marilyn-monroes-final-photo-shoot-weeks-before-her-death-sparks-legal-battle-as-auction-house-makes-nearly-1m-off-negatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=7467","title":{"rendered":"Marilyn Monroe&#8217;s final photo shoot weeks before her death sparks legal battle\u2014as auction house makes nearly $1M off negatives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F02%2F122264305.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Marilyn Monroe\u2019s final photos are at the center of a legal battle after a well-known auction house posted them on the internet \u2014 while making nearly $1 million off the allegedly stolen negatives.<\/p>\n<p>Bert Stern\u2019s famous three-day photo session with Monroe \u2014 done six weeks before she was found dead on Aug. 4, 1962 \u2014 became known as \u201cThe Last Sitting\u201d and included sultry images of the star lounging on a bed with nothing but a white sheet and a glass of wine.<\/p>\n<p>Officially licensed prints from the shoot are still worth thousands of dollars to the survivors of Stern, who died in June 2013 at age 83.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Heritage Auction allegedly recreated much of Bert Stern\u2019s \u201cThe Complete Last Sitting\u201d in its catalog for the December auction. <span class=\"credit\">Obtained by the NY Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But the family business was allegedly wrecked by Heritage Auctions last year, when it blasted hundreds of photos onto the internet while promoting an auction of the negatives from the photo shoot.<\/p>\n<p>Widow Shannah Stern has accused the Dallas-based auctioneer of using its 274-page catalog for the sale, which included 1,363 of the 2,571 copyrighted photos, to practically recreate the photo session.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Heritage\u2019s \u201cpurpose was to supplant the original works in their entirety, including by selling and distributing the Infringing catalog to over 2,000 Heritage clients and making high resolution images of the photographs available on the Heritage website,\u201d Stern said in a Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>Heritage sold off the negatives on Dec. 8 to an undisclosed buyer for more than $900,000, despite Shannah Stern\u2019s caution that the company did not have the estate\u2019s authorization, she alleged in her copyright infringement case.<\/p>\n<p>Stern also sued Heritage in December in Manhattan Supreme Court over the sale of the negatives. The case is ongoing. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Heritage allegedly copied this image of Monroe in bed with a glass of wine for its catalog. <span class=\"credit\">Obtained by the NY Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Bert Stern conducted the steamy session with Marilyn Monroe just six weeks before her death. <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>More than 1,000 people bid on the negatives, some of which are now being peddled on eBay, the widow claimed in her recent court papers.<\/p>\n<p>Bert Stern turned his photos of the 36-year-old Hollywood legend into two books, 1982\u2019s \u201cThe Last Sitting,\u201d and \u201cThe Complete Last Sitting,\u201d published in January 2000.<\/p>\n<div class=\"single__inline-module inline-module inline-module--newsletter aligncenter inline-module--nypostbusinessunit aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-newsletter\" data-source-unit=\"Inline Newsletter Module Morning Report\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__title-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__unsubmitted-title-wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"inline-module__title headline headline--combo-sm-md\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"inline-module__title headline headline--combo-sm-md\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>His widow wants $150,000 in damages for \u201cat least\u201d 1,527 images, and a court order forcing Heritage to reveal the buyers and profits from selling its catalog.<\/p>\n<p>The auction house denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe respect the copyright interests of artists and did so in this case,\u201d the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFilm negatives, similarly to prints created from those negatives and other artworks, are commonly bought and sold without transferring the original creator\u2019s copyrights in the works. Such resale does not constitute copyright infringement nor does the necessary description, advertisement and display of such works when offering them for sale.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/28\/us-news\/marilyn-monroes-final-photo-shoot-weeks-before-her-death-sparks-legal-battleas-auction-house-makes-nearly-1m-off-negatives\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marilyn Monroe\u2019s final photos are at the center of a legal battle after a well-known auction house posted them on the internet \u2014 while making nearly&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}