Marilyn Monroe Memorabilia Auction Nears $100,000 for Evening Purse

An auction with an array of memorabilia from Marilyn Monroe's estate and friends has already brought in thousands of dollars in bids on the 100th anniversary of her birth.

The sale, which began on Thursday, features 185 items from the model and actress's life, including a 1950s evening purse worth an estimated $100,000 (£74,000), an evening gown and even her lip pomade.

Julien's Auctions said the sale includes "countless never-before-seen photographs and slides of the star as well as rare and hard-to-find images hidden for decades".

The star - who rose to fame as a sex symbol in the 1950s and died aged 36 - has continued to captivate the attention of Americans long after her passing.

The Julien's auction is part of exhibitions and celebrations across the US this week honouring the blonde bombshell's birth on 1 June, 1926.

Earlier this week, more than a thousand fans dressed as Monroe in her famous white-pleated dress in Palm Springs, California, to pose next to an iconic statue of her wearing the same outfit.

A separate auction from the company Heritage included a Christian Dior skirt that Monroe wore on her honeymoon and a letter from her husband playwright Arthur Miller.

Born Norma Jeane Mortenson, Monroe grew up in foster homes and was discovered by an army photographer while working in an aircraft factory during World War Two. She starred in a number of hits, including Some Like It Hot and Niagara, before her death from an overdose in 1962.

The Julien's auction contains several items Monroe "personally owned, touched, and used, including pieces from her last residence in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California", the company said.

The most expensive item is Monroe's gold-toned 1950s cylindrical minaudiere purse carrying her tiny hair comb, a tube of lipstick, eight Philip Morris cigarettes and 1940s dimes. As of Thursday morning, the highest bid on the item was $70,000.

One of the most intimate items in the collection is Monroe's 1950s brassiere that the auction company said had "yellowed due to age" and was inherited by Monroe's acting coach Paula Strasberg. The undergarment, which was estimated to be worth $1,000, had 15 bids, with the highest at $7,000.

The auction also features several of Monroe's personal make-up products, including lipsticks, blush and eyeliner pencil, which the auction company noted has continued to captivate people on TikTok hoping to recreate Monroe's look.

There were dozens of bids on never-before-published images from Monroe's photoshoots over the years, signed by the famous photographers who took the pictures, including Allan Grant and Milton Greene.

The public had also bid $15,000 on the olive-green painted wood front gates to the only home Monroe ever owned in the ritzy Brentwood neighbourhood. Monroe paid around $100 for the gates in 1962, according to the auction company.