You Won't Believe How Much Marilyn Monroe's Iconic Dress Just Sold For
How much would you pay for a piece of the legend?
There's a lot you can do with $4.8 million. You could buy the 2016 Victoria's Secret Fantasy Bra, which is covered in emeralds and rumored to be worth $3 million. After that bejeweled splurge, you'd still have enough to get a $1,500 facial—or devote several days to facials with a very lavish spa vacation. But, for one auction enthusiast, nearly five million dollars was the right price to pay for a slinky piece of history.
As NBC News reported, the dress that Marilyn Monroe wore to sing her famously breathy rendition of "Happy Birthday" sold to an "unidentified bidder" in Los Angeles on Thursday. Jean Louis designed the 1962 gown, covering it in sequins. With a nude hue that matched Marilyn's skin tone, the dress was so form-fitting that the star had to be sewn into it before she serenaded John F. Kennedy. Tragically, the icon's flirty performance took place just three months before she died from a drug overdose.
Apart from owning a glamorous and poignant piece of history, the dress seems to a smart investment. The last time the it sold was in 1999, when a fund manager acquired it for a bid of $1.26 million. Since then, the dress has been kept on a mannequin in a climate-controlled display case, and has obviously only gone up in value.
This isn't the only piece of Marilyn's wardrobe to fetch an impressive sum. The white dress she wore over a subway grate—you know the one—reportedly sold for $5.6 million at a 2011 auction in Los Angeles.
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