Rare Diamond Edition Photos of Marilyn Monroe by Milton H. Greene, Released for Online Show Exclusively on Artsy

The Archives, LLC
Aug 8, 2014 2:38PM

The Archives, LLC is proudly releasing “Diamond Edition’ the extraordinary photographic collection of recently never before seen intimate portraits of Marilyn Monroe by friend and photographer Milton H. Greene. 

Milton H. Greene (1922-1985) created a vast body of work, consisting of images of our most beloved artists, musicians, and theatrical celebrities. His name and reputation, as a significant art photographer of the 20th Century, is widely known throughout the world. Milton’s photography traced the passage of an era through the world of Hollywood and Fashion. Milton’s archive contains iconic fashion and glamour photography that sought to reveal a deeper beauty, from the heart, and also show his subjects in natural settings to elicit unforced intimacy.

It was Milton’s unique personal friendship and business relationship with Marilyn Monroe that facilitated extraordinary photographs, recording her moods, beauty, talent and spirit which he is most widely remembered for as the resulting body of work. The Monroe collection contains more than 3,000 images, many never before seen photographs of the screen legend.

The ‘Diamond Edition’ was originally created five decades after the death of Marilyn Monroe in celebration of her life to be introduced at 65th Cannes Film festival which was hosted and sponsored by Chopard Jewelers. Chopard unveiled an intimate viewing at the Hotel Martinez in Cannes, France in the exclusive Chopard lounge this exceptional series of 25 never before seen photographs of Marilyn Monroe by Milton H. Greene, along with a stunning tribute jewelry creation designed by Caroline Scheufele hence titled ‘Diamond Edition.’

These unseen photographs were a revelation and source of inspiration for Chopard artistic director and Co-president Caroline Scheufele who designed a one of a kind, 200 plus carat heart shaped diamond necklace and earrings inspired by the song ‘Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend’ that Marilyn sang in ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ and were worn by model and actress Eva Herzigova on the Cannes Film Festival red carpet that evening as a tribute to Marilyn Monroe.

Admirers and fans of Milton and Marilyn had this exceptional window of opportunity to view the collection of 25 images which are representative of Milton and Marilyn’s legendary friendship, as Marilyn herself said about Milton, ‘You made me interesting.’ 

The images called ‘Diamond Edition’ were hand selected by Joshua Greene and edited by Chopard from 40 select images for the occasion. For 2 years the ‘Diamond Edition’ collection stayed in the hands of Chopard and traveled as a series called ‘Forever Marilyn’ to NY, Zurich, UK and graced the walls at Art Basel in Miami. 

The ‘Diamond Edition’ is currently being re-released and published onto Artsy for purchase to the public as a collection of 22 of the 25.

The Archives, LLC