• June 21, 1999
• Vol. 51
• No. 23

Objects of Desire

An Auction of Marilyn's Possessions Reveals the Person Behinds the Icon

For all her onscreen odes to diamonds and cash, money couldn't buy happiness for Marilyn Monroe. It did, however, fill her wardrobe with mink coats and Pucci bikinis and furnish her Brentwood home with such 1950s geegaws as a gold Magnavox TV. These and 1,500 other items of clothing, furniture and movie paraphernalia that belonged to the screen goddess will come under the auctioneer's hammer at Christie's in Manhattan Oct. 27 and 28. While the proceeds are unlikely to top the $34.5 million raised by the Jackie Onassis auction in 1996, the vast collection is among the biggest celebrity sell-offs ever.

You don't have to marry a millionaire to bid—but it might help. Expected to fetch top dollar is the silk Jean Louis gown Monroe wore to sing "Happy Birthday" to John F. Kennedy in 1962. The wedding ring Joe DiMaggio gave her in 1954 is estimated at $30,000 to $50,000. But perhaps most intriguing are the personal items up for grabs. There are scripts—including Monroe's heavily annotated copy of Some Like It Hot—and her private library, featuring classics by Tolstoy, Hemingway and Camus. Since Monroe's death in 1962, the cache, which she left to her acting coach, the late Lee Strasberg, has been in storage. Strasberg's widow, Anna, who never knew Monroe, has said that some of the proceeds will go to charities but declines to give any reason for selling now. Not everyone approves. "Anna is selling every personal artifact that was Marilyn's but her underwear," says a friend of the late star's. "How would Marilyn feel? What do you think?"