Vogue spread of Marilyn Monroe photos sells for $146,500 US

A collection of photographs of Marilyn Monroe, taken for Vogue magazine the year she died, has been auctioned in New York for $146,500 US.

The 36 images were taken by Bert Stern in 1962 and were about to be published when Monroe died of a drug overdose.

Vogue instead ran the images as a memorial tribute to the actress who starred in Some Like It Hot and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

An anonymous buyer was top bidder on the Vogue series, known as The Last Sitting,  which sold Tuesday evening.

Four photographs by Australian-German photographer Helmut Newton, who worked in Paris in the 1960s, sold for $662,500 US. His series They're Coming, Paris (Naked and Dressed) features two photos of nude models alongside photos of them dressed for the catwalk.

Photographs of Monroe by artist Andy Warhol, Andre De Dienes and acclaimed celebrity photographer Richard Avedon are to be auctioned on Wednesday.

Also to be sold are images of celebrities such as Jane Russell, Ava Gardner, Faye Dunaway and Charlotte Rampling.

The images come from the collection of Leon and Michaela Constantiner, who began collecting photographs of glamour and style icons in the early 1990s.