Marilyn Monroe items fetch £1.86M at auction, Dior suit sets record

An auction of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia brought in £1.86 million on what would have been the icon’s 100th birthday. Drawn from the estate of her close friends Norman and Hedda Rosten, the June 1 sale presented personal items, letters and keepsakes that offered a rare glimpse into her private life.

Top lot was a Christian Dior suit worn during Monroe’s 1954 honeymoon with Joe DiMaggio, which sold for £334,665 — a record for a non-performance-worn Monroe garment. A pair of triple-hoop pendant earrings worn when she arrived at New York’s Idlewild Airport in September 1954 fetched £288,009.

An eight-page handwritten letter from Arthur Miller, written as the couple’s marriage neared its end, realized £46,481. Three letters from Dr. Ralph Greenson, Monroe’s psychiatrist, sold for the same amount; one included an emotional account written 11 days after her death in which Greenson recounted the events leading up to her final day and its aftermath.

United States, New York

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