Massive Hollywood Photo Collection to be Auctioned in New York

Tens of thousands of photographs and negatives from a large collection of Hollywood images will be sold via a two-day auction in New York next month. The Movie Star News Collection includes nearly three million posters, negatives and photos of iconic stars including Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Rudolph Valentino, Judy Garland, Steve McQueen, Charlie Chaplin and Audrey Hepburn.

“This is probably one of the world’s largest collections of Hollywood images,” Joanne Grant, an archivist and auctioneer at Guernsey’s auction house, told Reuters. “This sale is all about black and white (prints) because it is mostly about Hollywood of the 20s, 30s and 40s, although Marilyn Monroe is from the 50s.”

Photographer Irving Klaw started amassing the collection in 1939 after striking a deal with film studios. Photographs from movie sets of “The Wizard of Oz,” “King Kong” and “The Godfather” as well as 600 photographs of Monroe are some of the items available for purchase. The auction will take place at The Arader Galleries on April 6 and 7 and be open to the public.