Marilyn Monroe’s final photo shoot sparks legal battle

The final photographs ever taken of Marilyn Monroe are now at the center of a heated legal dispute after a prominent auction house posted them online while earning nearly $1 million from the sale of the original negatives.

Photographer Bert Stern conducted a now-famous three-day photo session with Monroe just six weeks before she was found dead on Aug. 4, 1962. The shoot became known as “The Last Sitting” and featured intimate images of the Hollywood icon posing on a bed draped only in a white sheet, at times holding a glass of wine.

Officially licensed prints from the session continue to command thousands of dollars, benefiting Stern’s surviving family members. However, his widow, Shannah Stern, alleges that Heritage Auctions severely damaged the family business last year by uploading hundreds of the images to the internet while promoting the sale of the original negatives.

According to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, the Dallas-based Heritage Auctions used a 274-page auction catalog that featured 1,363 of the 2,571 copyrighted images from the shoot. The lawsuit claims the catalog effectively recreated the entire session. Shannah Stern alleges that the auction house distributed the catalog to more than 2,000 clients and posted high-resolution versions of the photographs online, actions she says infringed on the estate’s copyrights.

Despite warnings that the estate had not authorized the sale, Heritage Auctions proceeded to sell the negatives on Dec. 8 to an undisclosed buyer for more than $900,000, according to the complaint.

In addition to the federal lawsuit, Shannah Stern filed a separate case in Manhattan Supreme Court in December challenging the sale. That case remains ongoing. Court filings state that more than 1,000 bidders participated in the auction, and some of the negatives are now reportedly being resold on eBay.

Bert Stern later published the images in two books: The Last Sitting in 1982 and The Complete Last Sitting in January 2000. His widow is seeking at least $150,000 in damages for what she describes as the unauthorized use of 1,527 images. She is also asking the court to require Heritage Auctions to disclose the identities of buyers and detail the profits earned from the catalog’s sale.

Heritage Auctions has denied any wrongdoing. In a statement, the company said it respects artists’ copyrights and acted appropriately in this case.

The auction house added that film negatives, like prints and other artworks, are routinely bought and sold without transferring the original creator’s copyright. It maintains that reselling such materials — along with describing, advertising, and displaying them for sale — does not constitute copyright infringement.