Rare Marilyn Monroe memorabilia up for auction including never-before-seen photos, used makeup and lingerie

Marilyn Monroe fans will have the opportunity to get their hands on a piece of the late star’s dazzling life… but it will cost them a pretty penny.

Julien’s Auctions is celebrating what would have been Monroe’s 100th birthday by putting 100 significant pieces from her impressive life up for sale on June 4, but many of the items are expected to cost thousands, even tens of thousands, of dollars.

The Hollywood icon was famously found dead in her Los Angeles home on August 5, 1962, at the age of 36.

She was naked, face down on her bed in a room littered with pill bottles; an autopsy later found that she died from a probable suicide caused by a barbiturate overdose.

Now, on what would have been her 100th birthday, some of her possessions will be put up for sale, including pieces of her historic home, iconic gowns worn throughout her career, scripts, makeup and even never-before-seen photos and handwritten notes.

The Beverly Hills-based auction house said there will also be other ‘personal treasures and artifacts’ from Monroe’s famous films The Seven Year Itch and Something’s Got To Give.

The estimated price of the pieces ranges from $300 to $50,000.

Martin Nolan, executive director and co-founder of Julien’s Auctions, said the auction demonstrates the significance of Monroe’s life.

He added that they hope to honor her ‘extraordinary life and enduring legacy’ as one of the 20th century’s defining cultural icons. 

‘There was a world before Marilyn Monroe and a profoundly different one after,’ he said in a press release.

‘She remains a once-in-a-generation star whose influence reshaped culture and continues to resonate today.’

He added that the auction house is ‘proud’ to offer the collection of her personal belongings.

‘[They are] objects that capture the glamour, talent, vulnerability and sensuality that cement her status as an everlasting legend of Hollywood,’ he said.

The most expensive of the items is the wooden front gates of the iconic star’s Brentwood home, which are expected to sell for somewhere between $30,000 and $50,000.

Another high-ticket item is Monroe’s stunning 1950s Jeanne Lanvin Paris ivory silk evening gown, which is the epitome of her iconic style.

The show-stopping gown, which originally sold in the now-historic 1999 Christie’s New York sale of the star’s personal property and at Julien’s Auctions Property from the Estate of Lee Strasberg sale in 2016, is estimated to sell for somewhere between $20,000 to $30,000.

The model’s personal garments, which were synonymous with helping her create her unique post-war American feminine style and iconography as Hollywood’s ultimate sex symbol, will also be up for auction with an estimated price of $1,000 to $2,000.

Along with the famous actress’s belongings are also rare and hard-to-find images that have been hidden for decades.

This includes a signed photo from 1954 of Monroe and her husband, Joe DiMaggio, which shows them walking off an airplane in Japan during their ‘working’ honeymoon, estimated at $4,000 to $6,000.

Another never-before-seen snap of the model from 1962, taken just a month before her death, is also estimated to cost between $4,000 to $6,000.

A third photo shows one of the actress’s first headshots as a teenager in 1944.

Also for auction are pictures from the collection of Frieda Hull, a member of the Monroe Six, who were a group of young fans who followed Monroe around town and with whom the star became friends; each one is estimated to sell for $4,000 to $6,000.

Beauty fans of the famous model can also purchase her personal makeup, including her orange shade Max Factor Lip Pomade 7-22 lipstick, which she wore in the unfinished 1962 film Something’s Got To Give, priced between  $3,000 to $5,000.

Her Helena Rubinstein mascara, said to be one of Monroe’s favorite brands, is also for sale, estimated to go for $600 to $800.

Letters and annotated scripts are also amongst other standout offerings.