Revealed: lost Beaton image of Monroe

It is hard to imagine there is any image still unknown of Marilyn Monroe. But a new exhibition ofpreviously unseen photographs of the screen siren reveals more than anyone might believe possible after half a century of Monroe-mania.

It is hard to imagine there is any image still unknown of Marilyn Monroe. But a new exhibition of previously unseen photographs of the screen siren reveals more than anyone might believe possible after half a century of Monroe-mania.

This image we publish today in The Independet, never before exhibited, was taken by the British photographer Cecil Beaton at the Ambassador Hotel in New York on 22 February 1956. The sitting became famous, with black and white images of Monroe lying on a bed and standing with her arms behind her head against a wall.

But only Monroe aficionados will know of the existence of a set of colour prints from the shoot, which will feature in an exhibition and television series being organised jointly by the National Portrait Gallery and the BBC.

The theme is The World's Most Photographed and takes Monroe and nine others - Muhammad Ali, James Dean, Mahatma Gandhi, Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn, Adolf Hitler, John F Kennedy, Elvis Presley and Queen Victoria - to show how they used the camera to construct a public face.

Robin Muir, the curator, said even with Monroe some shots have a secret history. There is a shot of her with baseball players, for instance, that prompted Joe DiMaggio to ask to meet the actress - who subsequently became his wife.