Marilyn Monroe’s iconic “subway dress” from The Seven Year Itch has sold at auction for a whopping $5.6 million. The gigantic price tag exceeded the auction house’s expectation that the dress would sell for about $2 million.
The buyer, who won the bid after 20 minutes of auction drama so intense that it had seller Debbie Reynolds in tears, placed his bids over the phone and could not be immediately identified.
In the Beverly Hills, California auction on Saturday (18th June 2011) night the bidders paid another $2.7 million for three other Monroe movie outfits. Collector Keya Morgan said Saturday’s bids were “totally crazy, especially in this recession. Bidding for the iconic ivory pleated dress Monroe wore in ‘The Seven Year Itch’ was totally magical.”
Marilyn Monroe sent men’s hearts a-flutter when she stepped out of the cinema – and onto a Subway grate – in her beautiful white dress in The Seven Year Itch. And a movie memorabilia collector is giving you a chance to do the same provided you have $2 million laying around. The pleated halterneck dress is being sold in an auction of iconic film costumes and is expected to fetch up to $2 million. If you buy it and try it on yourself, please tell us what size Marilyn Monroe really was.
The famous frock is being shilled by Debbie Reynolds, who has collected Hollywood memorabilia for years and plans on selling off her entire collection. She also owns a dress worn by Maria in The Sound of Music, the Ascot dress and hat worn by Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, and shoes from The Wizard of Oz.
If you want to glimpse the subway dress as well as the rest of Reynolds’ treasures before they’re lost forever to rich memorabilia Collectors of the world, the collection will be on public display at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills for the next month.