A cream umbrella with a wooden handle used by Marilyn Monroe - then still an aspiring model and starlet named Norma Jean Baker - when André de Dienes took photos of her at Jones Beach and Tobey Beach in New York - was sold for $21875 (nearly R322000) by Julien’s Auctions.
De Dienes was an American-Hungarian fashion photographer best known for his iconic portraits of Baker, to whom he was briefly engaged, before she became the legendary actress Marilyn Monroe.
De Dienes and Monroe went on to collaborate for almost a decade, resulting in some of his most acclaimed work and her most enduring images which have over the years surfaced at auctions worldwide.
De Dienes died in 1985, 23 years after Monroe’s still controversial demise.