LOS ANGELES • The photos were shot just weeks before Marilyn Monroe's death in 1962.

Now, more than 150 photos from that shoot for Cosmopolitan magazine are up for auction.

Photographer George Barris had spent several weeks on the project, snapping the bombshell actress at various Los Angeles spots just after her 36th birthday.

Most of the photos were acquired by a collector in the 1980s.

At the ongoing auction till Aug 11, other Monroe memorabilia such as an eighth-grade class photo and posters from her films Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Seven Year Itch (1955) are also available.

Meanwhile, a dress she wore while singing Happy Birthday to then United States president John F. Kennedy in 1962 went on display in San Francisco on Thursday, noted the SFGate portal.

It was bought by Ripley's Believe It Or Not! company for US$4.8 million (S$6.5 million) in November - the highest price ever bagged by a dress at auction.

Monroe died from a barbiturate overdose in her home.