Celebrity and fashion photographer Bert Stern has filed a lawsuit over seven missing photographs from his famed "last sitting" shoot with Marilyn Monroe shortly before her death.

The iconic series, shot for Vogue magazine in July 1962, depicts the Hollywood icon nude aside from some jewelry, posing behind a series of translucent scarves and lying among rumpled white bed linens.

Monroe died of a drug overdose two months later.

According to the lawsuit filed in Manhattan State Supreme Court this week, three individuals contacted Stern a few months ago and said they had obtained original prints from the Monroe photo series.

Stern said they presented two images to him to verify but said he would have to pay for the remaining images.

The 78-year-old photographer said he had lent the photos in question to a now-defunct 1960s-era publication called Eros magazine but they were never returned. The publisher of the magazine died in 2006.

Stern's suit calls for the return of the photos and at least $1 million US in damages and legal fees.

The images from The Last Sitting, as Stern's final series of Monroe photos became known, are among the most iconic of the Hollywood siren.

In February, New York magazine published a photo series in which Stern recreated the famous shoot with actress Lindsay Lohan.

With files from the Associated Press