Photographs of Marilyn Monroe appearing relaxed and lounging around a New York apartment nine months before she died were unveiled Friday after being held in a private archive for more than 45 years. Photographer Len Steckler shot the black-and-white images of Monroe when she unexpectedly arrived at his apartment in December, 1961, to visit his friend, Pulitzer-prize winning poet Carl Sandburg. Steckler is offering them for a sale as a limited edition series called “Marilyn Monroe: The Visit.” The pictures to be sold - four single images and two triptychs, or pictures in three parts - show Monroe wearing pointed, thick-rimmed sunglasses and a short sleeve dress while talking and laughing with Sandburg. Also offered will be 250 prints of each piece. Steckler, a former commercial fashion and beauty photographer who is now “about 80” and lives in Los Angeles, said on the afternoon Monroe visited, Sandburg had mentioned in a casual manner that they would soon have “a visitor.” The actress died in August, 1962, and Sandburg, who won Pulitzer prizes for his poetry and for a biography of Abraham Lincoln, died seven years later. The pieces range in price from $1,999 to $3,999 and have never been published for public use.
