So how much is a collection of King family photographs worth?

Particularly, a collection that does not include any photos of the family's most famous member, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.?

Photo courtesy of Cohasco Inc. (ENLARGE)

One of the photos shows Martin Luther King Sr. (center) and family members on the day of his sister Lucille Anderson's funeral in 1970. Martin Jr. does not appear in any of the photos.

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A New York auction house will try to find out on Tuesday.

Cohasco Inc. Document Preservation Center, a Yonkers-based outfit, is planning to auction 270 family photographs that once belonged to Woodie Brown, the sister of Martin Luther King Sr.

The photographs were found in her abandoned Detroit home after she died. In January 2006, Cohasco sold Brown's Bible — given to her by Daddy King — for a whopping $84,000.

Early last week, Bob Snyder, vice president of Cohasco, said he expected the photographs to fetch between $9,000 and $12,000. He said the collection included at least two photographs of Martin Luther King Jr.

But after receiving copies of the photographs, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and members of the King family determined that the person Snyder assumed was King in the photos was not him, but his cousin, Charles Hill.

"They do look alike," acknowledged LaSheila Cameron, another cousin of King and Hill's. "Our family genes are very strong."

Synder said the collection, while important, was never focused on Martin Luther King Jr.

"It suggests to me that somehow, his parents might have kept all of the photos of him. I can't imagine Woodie Brown not retaining any that she had," Snyder said. "But this collection was always about the King family and their lives and time. Aside from that, it is still a wonderful memory of things."

The photos, assumed to have been taken by or for Brown, show family members posing or on various trips. Coretta Scott King is in some of the photos. It also seems obvious that when Daddy King visited Detroit, he would stop by to see his sister, with several photos showing the two of them.

Snyder said the 270 original photos, stuffed in a leather album, include snapshots, 8x10s, panoramics and Polaroids.

He said some of the photos were taken in Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba. Others show church activities.

"They show 60 years of King family travels, friends and acquaintances," Snyder said. "In some ways, it is shedding a new light on their lives."

One of the photos was taken in December 1970 after the funeral of Lucille Anderson, Daddy King's youngest sister.

"That was a very emotional day," said Cameron, who was 11 at the time. "There were eight of them and Lucille was the youngest, so it was hard for all of them. They were all there."

Which is why Cameron, the daughter of Lenora Walker, another sister of Daddy King, wants them back in her family's possession.

"I would really, really like to get them back," said Cameron, who lives in Detroit. "They are personal. And I am sure that there are pictures of me and my mother that belong to our family."

When Brown — who was a widow and had no children — died in 1992 at the age of 95, her house was abandoned. Her extended family stopped paying taxes on her home, so it, along with much of the contents inside, was auctioned off by the county, Snyder said.

Cameron, 48, who lived in the house as a child, was living in California at the time of Brown's death.

"I was not aware of what the status of the house was at the time," Cameron said. "I assumed that when my aunt died, everything was taken care of. If I had known, it would have never gotten to this point."

Snyder will not reveal the owner of the photographs, citing privacy rights.

For more information, visit the Web site www.cohascodpc.com or call 914-476-8500.