The widow of a renowned photographer who captured Marilyn Monroe’s final photo shoot is seeking to halt an upcoming auction, claiming that thousands of original negatives from the historic session were stolen years ago.
Bert Stern became one of the last photographers to shoot Monroe when he was commissioned by Vogue to photograph the star in June and July 1962 — six weeks before her death. The iconic photo shoot, later known as The Last Sitting, produced more than 2,500 images. Stern first published many of the photos from this session in a 1982 book, including contact sheets that showed Monroe’s own crossed-out selections.
The cover for Bert Stern’s book ‘Marilyn Monroe – The Complete Last Sitting’ published in 1992 (Photo credit: Wikimedia commons)
However, according to a report by The Independent, Stern’s widow, Shannah Laumeister Stern, says those roughly 2,500 negatives vanished “in the middle of the night” from the photographer’s apartment long before he died in 2013. She has now filed a lawsuit in New York County Supreme Court seeking to block Heritage Auctions, based in Dallas, from selling what she alleges are the photos derived from the missing negatives.
In the complaint, Shannah says Stern always “suspected that the Mafia was behind the theft of the photo negatives, and that they also bore responsibility for Marilyn Monroe’s untimely death.” She says Stern received anonymous, taunting messages over the years about the “missing” negatives, which added to his fear and reluctance to pursue the matter.
The negatives’ whereabouts allegedly remained unknown until 2023, when Shannah was contacted by a lawyer representing a woman identified as “Jane Doe.” Doe claimed her late husband had received the negatives from Stern as collateral for a loan that was never repaid. The lawsuit argues there is no evidence that such a loan ever existed.
The complaint says the attorney first asserted the negatives had been recovered from the trash, and later stated they were loan collateral — claims Shannah disputes. It also states that Stern ended all communication after the attorney allegedly sought $3 million to return the negatives, a request the filing describes as “a shakedown” and possibly linked to the anonymous messages Stern had received.
According to the lawsuit, Doe consigned the negatives to Heritage Auctions, which is offering the photos of Monroe in a sale this month. Shannah is asking the court to stop the sale of the photos and return the materials to the Bert Stern Trust, arguing that “the relief requested herein is necessary to prevent irreparable harm to the Estate and legacy of Bert Stern and Marilyn Monroe.”
In a statement to The Independent, Shannah says: “I feel deeply disrespected, used, and taken advantage of. The stolen negatives belong back with the Bert Stern Trust. Nothing will stop me.”
But Richard Aulisi, a retired New York State Supreme Court judge representing Doe, tells The Independent that Laumeister Stern’s allegations are incorrect, saying: “My client intends to fight this. There is no legal or factual basis for this action.”
A spokesperson for Heritage Auctions also tells the publication in an email that “the consigner warranted good title in these items and we have no reason to believe otherwise.”
The news of the lawsuit comes after legendary war photographer Al Rockoff — who was immortalized in the classic movie The Killing Fields — claimed that his historic negatives were taken from him against his will in a bitter dispute.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.