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Marilyn Monroe's dresses: eight times the estimated price
Photo: Valerie Macon / AFP
Souvenirs of Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner (1926 to 2017) were auctioned in Los Angeles for unexpectedly high sums. A pink silk dress by the Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci that the actress wore fetched $325,000 (around 300,000 euros) on Thursday evening (local time). The auction house Julien's Auctions announced on Friday that this was more than eight times the estimated price.
A burgundy tuxedo with black silk pajamas and slippers from Hefner's wardrobe fetched almost $36,000, more than 17 times the estimate. And a copy of Hefner's first "Playboy" magazine from 1953, with Marilyn Monroe on the cover, went under the hammer for $6,500. The estimated value was $2,000.
At the start of the three-day auction, in addition to clothing items, a painting by US artist LeRoy Neiman and pin-up drawings by Alberto Vargas were auctioned. Hundreds more keepsakes can find a new owner by Saturday evening, including artwork, photos, jewelry, clothing and even a Marilyn Monroe lipstick.
Highlights include a gravesite at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Cemetery in Los Angeles, near the mausoleum crypts of Monroe and Hefner. After her death at the age of 36, the actress was buried there in 1962. Hefner purchased the crypt next to Monroe's resting place in 1992. He died in September 2017 at the age of 91.
The gravesite goes under the hammer on Saturday and could fetch between $200,000 and $400,000, according to CNN. Hefner himself paid $75,000 for his grave site in 1992. “Spending eternity next to Marilyn is too tempting to pass up,” he told the Los Angeles Times years later.
pbe/dpa