Marilyn Monroe Dress Breaks Record at Auction, and Darren Julien Comments

Christie's Auction

Yesterday marked Julien's Auctions annual entertainment memorabilia sale. The auction was conducted at their new location in Beverly Hills, and prices for Marilyn Monroe memorabilia reached new heights. Of particular note, a Marilyn Monroe owned cocktail dress, estimated at $30,000 to $40,000, sold for an astounding $348,000. This is undoubtedly the highest price paid for a Monroe dress at auction since the now world famous 1999 Christie's sale, "The Personal Property of Marilyn Monroe."


Lot Description: A black crepe cocktail dress with deep v-neck and low cut back, with pouf hemline. Interior label reads “front” to identify the front of the dress. Monroe wore this dress to a 1958 party at The Beverly Hills Hotel and is pictured on the cover of the book Marilyn Monroe: From Beginning to End by Michael Ventura. No size present.

Incredibly, the original sale price for this dress in 1999 was $23,000. The 1999 pre-sale estimate was $10,000 to $15,000.

There were also other items of note. A two-piece Pucci ensemble sold for $48,000. The pre-sale auction estimate was $6,000 to $8,000. While only a fraction of the cost of the cocktail dress, this is an astounding amount of money for a Marilyn Monroe outfit considering there is no known photograph of Marilyn wearing the ensemble. Even more astounding, I saw this two-piece Pucci outfit sell at auction several years ago for a mere $800. Finally, this Pucci outfit was formerly owned by Robert Otto, and was one of the few authentic Marilyn Monroe owned items displayed on the Queen Mary as part of the now infamous Monroe exhibit in 2006.

Lot Description: A two-piece silk jersey in seafoam green, boatneck, sleeveless shirt with elastic waist together with matching knee-length skirt. Each of the pieces have both Emilio Pucci and Saks Fifth Avenue labels. This Pucci outfit sold originally at the 1999 sale for $9,775.

Finally, a swimsuit with a Marilyn Monroe label from an unknown MGM film sold for an astonishing $84,000. Again, an astounding sum of money considering there are no known photos of Marilyn wearing this item. The original estimate was $6,000.00 to $8,000.00.

Lot Description: A Marilyn Monroe costume swimsuit from an unknown production. Swimsuit is dark blue with light blue ribbon across bust. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer tag reads "M. Monroe 36," additionally stamped MGM under bust lining.

So why are prices for Marilyn Monroe memorabilia items soaring? I had a chance to chat with Darren Julien today, President & CEO of Julien's Auctions. We discussed yesterday's events, in particular the Marilyn Monroe pieces selling for astronomical prices. My questions and his answers are provided below:

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MMC: "Darren, in your opinion, why are Marilyn items selling for more and more money each year?"

Darren Julien Response: "Marilyn Monroe has a global fan and collector base. It is becoming more and more difficult to obtain items with solid provenance from her life and career. The demand for her items are increasing while authentic items are becoming more difficult to find and make available to the public at auction. In addition, investors have started to buy Marilyn Monroe as a way to diversify their portfolio, and this even further increases the demand for her items. She is a safer investment than stocks or bonds."

MMC: "What was the draw to the itmes that sold for so much beyond the estimate; The swimsuit, the Pucci ensemble, and the black cocktail dress?

Darren Julien Response: "This is a very difficult question to answer because I think it really depends on the demand for each item and who is bidding. For example, we had three people who wanted the black cocktail dress. When the auction started they all felt that they were going to get it, and they had already emotionally committed themselves to buying it. That's why they were willing to go much higher than the estimate, or any values they'd pre-determined that they would pay for the dress. I think this was likely the case also with the Pucci outfit and the swimsuit."

MMC: "Were there any Marilyn lots yesterday that shocked you? For example, the price they sold for, either low or high?"

Darren Julien Response: "I was shocked by all of them. Even her books that sold several years ago for $500 to $800 went for $3,000 to $5,000 yesterday. It just goes to show you that everyone loves Marilyn Monroe.

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There are a few other auctions this summer with Marilyn Monroe items up for grabs, most significantly the Debbie Reynolds film costume collection auction next month. Marilyn Monroe has always been one of the most famous women in the world, with Monroe collectibles often selling for prices far greater than estimates. The Jean Luis dress Marilyn wore when she sang "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy in 1962 still holds the record for the most expensive dress ever sold at auction. This might be the most important auction year since 1999, determining just how much money fans, collectors, and now investors, will spend to personally own a piece of her magic. If yesterday's auction at Julien's was any indication, we'll likely see more Monroe pieces reach new heights.

Actor Dennis Hopper Owned Andy Warhol Marilyn Monroe Screenprint Heads to Auction

Christie's Auction

Coming to auction at Christie's is Andy Warhol's Marilyn: one plate (F. & S. II.27), owned by American actor Dennis Lee Hopper.

Lot Description:

Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Marilyn: one plate (F. & S. II.27)
screenprint in colors, 1967, on wove paper, signed and dated in pencil on the reverse, numbered 120/250 (there were also 26 artist proofs), published by Factory Additions, New York, the full sheet, framed
S. 36 x 36 in. (914 x 914 mm.)

From the Dennis Hopper Collection

View the auction lot here.

About Dennis Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010):


Multi-talented and unconventional actor/director regarded by many as one of the true "enfant terribles" of Hollywood who has led an amazing cinematic career for more than five decades, Dennis Hopper was born on May 17, 1936, in Dodge City, Kansas. The young Hopper expressed interest in acting from a young age and first appeared in a slew of 1950s television shows, including "Medic" (1954), "Cheyenne" (1955) and "Sugarfoot" (1957). His first film role was in Johnny Guitar (1954), which was quickly followed by roles in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Giant (1956) and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957). Hopper actually became good friends with James Dean and was shattered when Dean was killed in a car crash in September, 1955.

Read more on www.imdb.com here.

Andy Warhol 1962 "Marilyn" Sells for $4,450,500 at Christie's New York

Christie's Auction

Price Realized: $4,450,500 (Price includes buyer's premium)

Hammer Price: $3.9 Million

Estimate: $4,000,000 - $6,000,000

Sale Information: Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sale, 10 November 2010, New York, Rockefeller Plaza

Lot Description:

Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Marilyn
acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen
14 x 10¾ in. (35.5 x 27.3 cm.)
Painted in 1962

From the Collection of Robert Shapazian

Provenance:

Anna Butler, acquired directly from the artist circa 1962. Her sale; Sotheby's, New York, 11 March 1998, lot 258, Acquired at the above sale by the late owner.

Notes: Among the Pantheon of his goddesses of Pop, Marilyn Monroe was Andy Warhol's High Priestess. Completed just a month after her suicide in 1962, Marilyn is part of one of his most iconic series; he produces a fitting tribute to one of the most beautiful women in the world. This exemplary single screen marks the dawn of a new age for Warhol. He has perfected his signature silkscreen technique and has begun to explore the rich visual possibilities of an exciting palette of vivid colors. The result is a triumphant culmination which emerges out of a progression of innovative canvases, some containing as many as one hundred images of the actress on a single canvases.

Marilyn Monroe was the perfect subject for Warhol, who regarded her as kindred spirit; a fellow artist who was under-appreciated by her peers and whose creative talents were often misunderstood and rarely appreciated for their nuances. Immediately after her tragic death on August 5th 1962 Warhol became so preoccupied by the idea of Marilyn as a pre-fabricated media product that he translated her familiar image into some of his most iconic work.

The original image of Marilyn that Warhol chose for this particular screen was 8 x 10 inch publicity photograph thought to have been taken by Gene Korman for the promotion of Monroe's 1953 film, Niagara. Warhol then proceeded to crop the image to where the neck meets the shoulders, just below the line of the shadow cast by the jaw-line and the chin. Using these proportions he had a series of canvas made for his Marilyn images - a larger screen and several more intimate canvases, including the one used for the present lot.

Marilyn was also one of the first canvases in which Warhol perfected his screen-printing technique, as he recalled later

"In August '62 I started doing silkscreens. The rubber-stamp method I'd been using to repeat images suddenly seemed too homemade; I wanted something stronger that gave more of an assembly-line effect. With silkscreening, you pick a photograph, blow it up, transfer it in glue onto silk, and then roll ink across it so the ink goes through the silk but not through the glue. That way you get the same image, but slightly different each time. It was all so simple-quick and chancy. I was thrilled with it. My first experiments with screens were heads of Troy Donahue and Warren Beatty, and then when Marilyn Monroe happened to die that month, I got the idea to make screens of her beautiful face - the first Marilyns" (A. Warhol, quoted in A. Warhol & P. Hackett, Popism, New York, 1980, p. 28).

The sense of spontaneity and risk, where no two canvases two canvases are the same, is what sparked Warhol's enthusiasm for this method of image making, along with the fact that it enabled him to harvest the mass of media images for his source material. Although often regarded as being the antithesis of so-called 'action painting' Warhol felt the silkscreen process alluded to a similar artistic language. For Warhol the gestural nature and energe need to force the ink through the screen replicated the energetic methods of Pollock's drops and de Kooning's brushstrokes.

Marilyn was also one of the first paintings in which Warhol introduced what became his signature range of vibrant colors. Although the Pop Art movement was defined partly by its often vivacious use of pigment, much of Warhol's earlier work was executed in monotones and it was only in 1962 that he first began to use an increasing number of colors on the same canvas. Marilyn's background of fresh phthalo green is complemented by Monroe's halo of golden hair and the fleshy pink tones of her complexion. The bold swathes of color helped to map out the broad areas of the composition while the half-tone screen that was applied in black gave the face its particular definition. The finishing touches of detail - the eyes, lips and other facial features - were then added with a final flourish of the artist's brush.

Warhol's Marilyn has become one of the most iconic images he ever produced. Examples from this series are now in major private and museum collections around the world including the founding collection of the Andy Warhol Museum. The shock of Warhol's ingenuity at capturing the true essence of celebrity impressed critics of his 1962 show at the Stable Gallery which debuted Warhol's Marilyn series, as highlighted by critic Michael Fried, "An art like Warhol's is necessarily parasitic upon the myths of our time, and indirectly therefore on the machinery of fame and publicity that these myths; and it is not unlikely that these myths that move us will be unintelligible (or at least starkly dated) to generations that follow. This is...to register as advance protest against the advent of a generation that will not be as moved by Warhol's beautiful, vulgar, heartbreaking icons of Marilyn Monroe as I am. These, I think, are the most successful pieces in the show...because...Marilyn is one of the overriding myths of our time." (M. Fried, quoted in G. Freid and N. Printz, eds., The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné of Painting and Sculpture 1961-1963, vol. 1, New York, 2002, 247). It is a demonstration of the enduring nature of Warhol's art that Fried's worries about the lasting impact of Warhol's Marilyn have proved to be unfounded as his image of Monroe have become some of the most admired and sought after of the past half-century.

Marilyn Sells Big at Christie's London Auction

Christie's Auction

Prices realized at the recent Film Memorabilia Sale at Christie's London, South Kensington show that Marilyn Monroe owned property is still hot!

Lot Description: Marilyn Monroe/Joe DiMaggio - A Yankee baseball 1936-1939 signed in black ink by Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gherig, Johnny Murphy, Joe Gordon, Bob Johnson, Chez Sanger, Red Rolf, Chad Ruffing and Ted Lyons; together with a circa late 1940s/early 1950s factory stamped souvenir ball sold at Yankee Stadium, signed in black ink by Casey Stengel, Ed Ford, Bob Grimm, Jimmy Martin and Gil McDougal (2)

Price Realized: £3,500 / $5,782

Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000/ $3,100 - $4,500

Lot Description: Marilyn Monroe - A handwritten, signed letter, not dated, on notepaper, 1p, folded, addressed, in blue ink; My Dearest Natasha, wishing the recipient Happy Christmas to you and Beatrice. I just want you to know, I'm grateful to you for much more than my life- signed Love Marilyn, with original envelope also addressed Natasha - letter 5¾x8in. (14x19.25cm.); together with two Bert Stern images of Monroe [later printings] - both 8x6in. (20x15cm.) (3)

Price Realized: £2,750 / $4,543

Estimate: £2,500 - £4,500 / $3,800 - $6,800

Lot Description: Marilyn Monroe - A colourless paste sunburst cluster brooch and Christie's lot card from the auction The Personal Property of Marilyn Monroe

Price Realized: £2,250 / $3,717

Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000/ $3,100 - $4,500

Modeled by Suzie Kennedy

Lot Description: Marilyn Monroe - A turquoise knitted mohair and wool vest-top, labelled inside Hand Knitted, Made in Italy; accompanied by an identical vest-top in cream; both with Christie's lot card from the auction The Personal Property of Marilyn Monroe (2)

Price Realized: £3,500 / $5,782

Estimate: £800 - £1,200 / $1,200 - $1,800

Lot Description: Marilyn Monroe - A handwritten, signed letter by Marilyn Monroe, not dated, on note paper, 1p. double sided; to Dear Natasha explaining that Hathaway had to leave early but that she spoke with him on the phone and that he hasn't finished it yet but will do so tonite (sic) on the plane also he said that if he liked it he planned to show it to Robinson who he will meet in Paris in a few days. She explains further that she had kept waiting to hear and had only done so late this afternoon, signed Love Marilyn - 5x7in. (13x18cm.); together with a Bert Stern image of Monroe [later printing] - 8x6in. (20x15cm.) (2)

Price Realized: £2,750 / $4,543

Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000 / $3,100 - $4,500

Lot Description: Marilyn Monroe = A pair of mixed cut, colourless paste, triple drop fringe ear pendants with clip fitting; and Christie's lot card from the auction The Personal Property of

Marilyn Monroe (2)Price Realized: £8,750 / $14,455

Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000 / $3,100 - $4,500

Lot Description: Marilyn Monroe - A three-quarter length evening dress of black silk jersey with rouched body and sleeves, with black silk three-tiered detail attached to hip, labelled inside Cecil Chapman; together with Christie's lot card from the auction The Personal Property of Marilyn Monroe

Price Realized: £9,375 / $15,488

Estimate: £6,000 - £8,000/ $9,100 - $12,000

Lot Description: Marilyn Monroe -A bright fuchsia pink silk evening stole with fringed edges -- 80¼in. (204cm.) long; and Christie's lot card from the auction The Personal Property of Marilyn Monroe

Price Realized: £4,750 / $7,847

Estimate: £400 - £600 / ($610 - $900)

Modeled by Suzie Kennedy

Crypt Above Marilyn Remains Unsold

Christie's Auction

The attempts to sell the vault above Marilyn Monroe have failed for a second time.

The latest auction of the marble crypt did not fetch any bids, according to organiser Eric Gazin, of AuctionCause.com. A $4.6m bid fell through in August when Elsie Poncher first tried to sell her late husband's tomb. Mr Gazin said several people were pre-approved to bid on the crypt at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery. But when it came down to it, none of them came forward to take part. The family is now "weighing their options", added Mr Gazin.

Mrs Poncher is trying to sell the space of her husband, allegedly buried face down above Monroe, to pay off the mortgage on her Beverly Hills home, according to reports. His remains would be moved sideways to a neighbouring plot to make room for the new occupant, said Mrs Poncher.

The space next to Monroe's vault was sold in 1992 to the publisher of Playboy magazine, Hugh Hefner, for $75,000. Other stars buried at the cemetery include Farrah Fawcett and Dean Martin.

Marilyn Monroe Photos at Auction in London

Christie's Auction

Bloomsbury Auctions will have several Marilyn Monroe photos up for auction at its forthcoming Auction of Photographs in London on Tuesday, November 10th at 2:00 pm.

To view the catalog online, visit http://www.bloomsburyauctions.com/auction/699

Original Monroe Image Sells at Auction

Christie's Auction

An original 1953 image of Marilyn Monroe, taken by Frank Powolny, sold last November for $11,505. Estimate: $7,555-$10,577. Listed at Christie's London, this numbered gelatin silver print was from the collection of James Danziger, and was acquired from a New York photographica fair in the 1980s.

Powolny was head photographer at 20th Century Fox for over 40 years. During his tenure as a portrait and set photographer, he shot dozens of famous faces, including Shirley Temple, Betty Grable, Humphrey Bogart and, of course, Marilyn Monroe. Original prints of this image are extremely rare.

This image, originally a publicity portrait for Monroe's 1953 thriller Niagara, was famously appropriated by Andy Warhol for his 1960s silkscreens.

New Images of Monroe Continue to Surface

Christie's Auction

Up for auction at the February 12, 2009 Christie's sale, a rare photo of the screen legend, together with seven other photos. Estimate: $4,000-$6,000. To view this lot, click here. To view all lots from this sale, click here.

This image appears to have been taken at an event Marilyn attended on April 26, 1955: The Banshee Luncheon. The Banshees were a New York City Luncheon group made up mainly of artists, writers, and editors. Additional images of Marilyn at this event can be seen here.

Interesting point of note, in this rarely seen image, Marilyn is wearing her mink fur collar, which today is part of the Marilyn Monroe Collection. For more on this collection piece, click here.

Marilyn Monroe Owned Oil Painting Hits the Auction Block Again, and Again, and Again...

Christie's Auction

An oil painting that belonged to Marilyn sold at a London auction house this month for $6,718.00.

This piece was originally offered at the 1999 Christie's sale "The Personal Property of Marilyn Monroe" in 1999, Lot 346. It either didn't sell in 1999, or the lot winner never paid for it.

It was offered by Christie's again in 2000, when it sold for $4,465.

In 2005, the painting was offered by CooperOwen Auction house. It sold for £9,500.

In 2006, the painting was offered by Bonhams Knightsbridge. It didn't sell.

In 2007, the painting was offered by The Fame Bureau’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Circus. It sold for $13,000.

Quite a journey for a truly unique Monroe owned item.

This painting was fashioned after a 1955 Mondern Screen magazine cover with an image of Marilyn. The artist was Romeo Catozella.