UPDATE:

One of the pictures in this auction, from Bert Stern's final session with the actress shortly before her death, sold for $146,000, shattering previous records.
If you're a classic movie fan who can afford a quick trip to New York and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Marilyn Monroe photos, head for Christie's in New York December 16-17.

The auction house is offering the biggest collection of the iconic star's photographs, covering her career from her days as Norman Jean Baker to her final photo shoot with Bert Stern, recently recreated (some might say desecrated) by Lindsey Lohan in a Vanity Fair homage.

The huge collection, which includes Richard Avedon's prescient portrait of a tired Marilyn with her glamour guard down, offers more than just Marilyn. It's "Icons of Glamour and Style," people like James Dean, Natassia Kinski and Jane Russell, photographed by the giants of the art. Christie's expects the entire collection to fetch something between $7.5 and $11 million.

It's always hard to say whether people will spend outrageous amounts during a time of financial crisis. But Marilyn never seems to lose her appeal. I'll check back in after the sale and see how it went.