An auction of personal items that belonged to Marilyn Monroe, from a 1950s evening bag to her lip pomade, opened on the 100th anniversary of her birth and swiftly collected bids upwards of $70,000, Julien’s Auctions said Thursday.
The sale, which began on June 4, features 185 objects that Monroe “personally owned, touched, and used, including pieces from her last residence in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles,” according to the auction house. The lot catalog spans evening gowns, never-before-published photographs signed by photographers including Allan Grant and Milton Greene, and intimate cosmetic products — lipsticks, blush, and eyeliner pencil — that the auction house noted continue to captivate audiences on TikTok seeking to recreate Monroe’s look.
The most expensive item as of Thursday morning was a gold-toned 1950s cylindrical minaudiere purse containing a tiny hair comb, a tube of lipstick, eight Philip Morris cigarettes, and 1940s dimes. Bidding on the lot had reached $70,000, pushing toward its estimate of $100,000. Monroe’s 1950s brassiere, inherited by her acting coach Paula Strasberg and described by the auction house as having “yellowed due to age,” drew 15 bids with a high of $7,000, well above its $1,000 estimate. The olive-green painted wood front gates to the only home Monroe ever owned, in Brentwood, fetched a $15,000 offer; Monroe had paid roughly $100 for the gates in 1962, the auction company said.
A separate sale by Heritage Auctions this week included a Christian Dior skirt Monroe wore on her honeymoon and a letter from her husband, playwright Arthur Miller.
The auctions coincide with exhibitions and centennial celebrations across the U.S. Earlier this week, more than a thousand fans dressed as Monroe in her famous white-pleated dress gathered in Palm Springs, California, to pose next to an iconic statue of the actress wearing the same outfit.
Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926, spent her childhood in foster homes, and was discovered by an army photographer while working in an aircraft factory during World War Two. She starred in a series of hits, including Some Like It Hot and Niagara, before her death from a drug overdose in 1962. Julien’s Auctions said the sale presents “countless never-before-seen photographs and slides of the star as well as rare and hard-to-find images hidden for decades.”