Candid Marilyn Monroe photos go public in Poland

WARSAW, Poland – As fans worldwide mark 50 years since her untimely death, a collection of rare Marilyn Monroe photographs immortalizing the American blonde bombshell went on display in Warsaw Monday, August 6.

Poland’s State Treasury obtained the candid shots of Monroe by a friend.

The collection is made up of nearly 4,000 photographs that the organization received as part of a 1995 foreign debt settlement.

The collection also contains images of Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli, Marlon Brando, Judy Garland and Marlene Dietrich. It is to be auctioned off later this year.

Monroe is snapped dressed in jeans fixing her lipstick and hair, eating a meal and coyly chatting on the phone in several photos. These will be on display until September 6 at the Association of Polish Artistic Photographers on Warsaw’s Royal Castle Square.

According to the association, some of the images of Monroe have not been seen before.

No date has yet been fixed for the auction, but Poland’s treasury expects it to happen before the end of the year and fetch upwards of US$680,000 (560,000 euros).

Some 300 Monroe fans gathered Sunday, August 5, at the Los Angeles cemetery where she is buried, commemorating the iconic sex symbol on the 50th anniversary of her death.

The actress died on August 5, 1962 from a barbiturate overdose at her home in the upscale Brentwood neighborhood. – Agence France-Presse