NEW YORK (Reuters) - Family members of the late photographer Philippe Halsman sued a New York gallery on Monday seeking damages for missing photographs featuring surrealist painter Salvador Dali.

Halsman's daughter and two grandchildren filed the lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan seeking at least $684,000 in damages for 44 photographs, they said the gallery had lost, including 41 that were portraits or collaborations with Dali.

The photographs included "Two Erect Sentries," dated 1954, which features a close-up of Dali's face with mustache curled upright worth $18,000, as well as several prints from the "Dali Atomicus" series in 1948.

Gallery owner Howard Greenberg met with the photographer's daughter Irene Halsman in September 2007 and told her the works the gallery had held had either been lost or stolen, the suit said.

Greenberg could not be reached for comment.

Also among the lost photographs were early Dali portraits worth up to $20,000 each, including various images dated 1942 and one titled "Dali Drawing in Bed," dated 1943.

Halsman met Dali in the early 1940s and they began their collaborations in the late 1940s. Halsman died in 1979 and Dali in 1989.