Photographs of screen siren Marilyn Monroe which have never before been seen in Britain, have gone on display in London.

The collection, Timeless Beauty, includes 70 mainly black and white portraits of the Hollywood star, and are being shown at Gallery 27 in London.

Four photographs by Bert Stern, which have been exhibited only once in Japan, are untouched-up one-offs which show the glamorous actress with wrinkles around the eyes and with facial hair.

Another four, which have only been shown in Los Angeles, are by an airline steward in Tokyo taken when Monroe and baseball superstar Joe DiMaggio landed in Japan in February 1954 to celebrate their honeymoon.

Limited edition

Two weeks later when the pair were leaving Japan, Pan Am steward Kashio Aoki asked Monroe to sign her autograph on the pictures.

Limited edition prints of most of the images, by photographers of the time such as George Barris, Tom Kelley, Milton Green and Lazlo Willinger, will be on sale for between �175 and �3,000.

Marilyn Monroe, who was born Norma Jean Baker in 1926, starred in films including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch, Bus Stop, Some Like It Hot and The Misfits.

She died in 1962, and was found dead in her home four months after being sacked from the production Something's Got to Give due to chronic lateness.