FILE - In this July 20, 2012 file photo gallery curator Anna Wolska presents a photo of Marylin Monroe by the late celebrity photographer Milton H. Greene, in Warsaw, Poland. Hundreds of photos of Marilyn Monroe and other celebrities go on auction in Poland. Some 238 pictures by the late famous photographer Greene are to be auctioned off in Warsaw on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012 and proceeds will go the state. Some of the images have not been published, the organizers believe. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz, File)
FILE - In this July 20, 2012 file photo gallery curator Anna Wolska presents a photo of Marylin Monroe by the late celebrity photographer Milton H. Greene, in Warsaw, Poland. Hundreds of photos of Marilyn Monroe and other celebrities go on auction in Poland. Some 238 pictures by the late famous photographer Greene are to be auctioned off in Warsaw on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012 and proceeds will go the state. Some of the images have not been published, the organizers believe. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz, File)
FILE - In this July 20, 2012 file photo gallery curator Anna Wolska presents a photo of Marylin Monroe by the late celebrity photographer Milton H. Greene, in Warsaw, Poland. Hundreds of photos of Marilyn Monroe and other celebrities go on auction in Poland. Some 238 pictures by the late famous photographer Greene are to be auctioned off in Warsaw on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012 and proceeds will go the state. Some of the images have not been published, the organizers believe. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz, File)
An auctioneer asks for prices during an auction of pictures by late celebrity photographer Milton H. Greene, in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012. Some 238 pictures by Greene including portraits of Marylin Monroe, along with Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Audrey Hepburn, Liza Minnelli, Marlene Dietrich, Paul Newman, Alfred Hitchcock and Marlon Brando, were auctioned off in Warsaw with highest bids reaching 60.000 Polish zlotys (18.700 US dollars, or 14.400 euros) . Proceeds from the auction will go to the Polish state which owns a collection of around 4,000 pictures by Greene that ended up in Poland's possession as the result of a complex embezzlement scandal that shook the country in the early 1990s. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)
A potential bidder looks at Marylin Monroe photos prior to an auction of pictures by the late celebrity photographer Milton H. Greene, in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012. Some 238 pictures by Greene including portraits of Marylin Monroe, along with Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Audrey Hepburn, Liza Minnelli, Marlene Dietrich, Paul Newman, Alfred Hitchcock and Marlon Brando, were auctioned off in Warsaw with highest bids reaching 60.000 Polish zlotys (18.700 US dollars, or 14.400 euros) . Proceeds from the auction will go to the Polish state which owns a collection of around 4,000 pictures by Greene that ended up in Poland's possession as the result of a complex embezzlement scandal that shook the country in the early 1990s. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)
FILE - In this July 20 2012 file photo gallery curator Anna Wolska presents a photo of Marylin Monroe and Arthur Miller by the late celebrity photographer Milton H. Greene, in Warsaw, Poland. Some 238 pictures by the late photographer Milton H. Greene including portraits of Monroe, along with Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Audrey Hepburn, Liza Minnelli, Marlene Dietrich, Paul Newman, Alfred Hitchcock and Marlon Brando, which are to be auctioned off in Warsaw on Thursday Nov. 8, 2012. Proceeds from the auction will go to the Polish state which owns a collection of around 4,000 pictures by Greene. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz, File)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) ? Who doesn't want a picture of Marilyn Monroe?
Hundreds of photographs of the blonde bombshell and other celebrities, including famous ones of Monroe in bed and as a ballerina, were sold for some $750,000 Thursday evening at an auction house in Poland.
Bidders and spectators packed the Desa Unicum house in Warsaw, where 238 pictures by the late American fashion and celebrity photographer Milton H. Greene were up for sale. Only one remained unsold, among some 500 bidders.
The auction house said in a statement that the 2.4 million zlotys obtained made it the nation's biggest photo auction to date.
Most of these pictures of Monroe were taken from 1953 to 1957 when Greene was her advisor and business partner. He made many of the prints during Monroe's lifetime and they are highly valued by collectors. They include series of refined black-and-white studio photos and shots taken in natural surroundings, sometime in provocative poses, some in color.
As the bidding began, a black-and-white photo of a reclining Monroe in black stockings sold for 50,000 zlotys ($16,000), and another of her in a ballerina's dress sold for almost $20,000. A picture of her in bed sold for $8,500.
The auction also offered Greene's pictures of other stars, like Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Marlene Dietrich and Liza Minnelli.
A picture of Nelly Nyad in white veil was among the bestsellers, at some $14,000, the auction house said.
Other greats in the vast portrait collection, which had been estimated at $680,000, included Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Paul Newman, Alfred Hitchcock and Marlon Brando.
The photos come from a collection of some 4,000 Greene pictures that Poland obtained from Chicago businessman Dino Matingas in the mid-1990s as the result of a complex communist-era embezzlement scandal linked to the buy-out of Poland's state debt. Proceeds from the auction will go to the Polish government.
Some of the images have never been published before, according to Marta Maciazek, the Polish official in charge of cleaning up the mess from the corruption affair.
Many bidders were disappointed to be left empty handed after starting prices of just 500 zlotys ($120) skyrocketed.
"I'm very disappointed, I was hoping to buy a picture for myself because she is gorgeous, but it just went far beyond my possibilities. Pity," said Jerzy Derczyk.
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