Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but two locks of Marilyn Monroe’s platinum hair could rival the price of the bling at an estate auction this fall.
The locks are expected to fetch as much as $8,000 when items from estate of one of her fans go on the auction block Nov. 19 and 20.
The Los Angeles sale by Julien’s Auctions will feature other memorabilia from the actress, who would have turned 90 in May. Monroe died in 1962.
Other auction items include a sheer, black-beaded and sequined dress from the “Some Like It Hot” and a pink linen halter dress from “Niagara.” And there is a large collection of pictures of Monroe from the 1955 premiere of “East of Eden.” The price estimates for the items range from $3,000 to $600,000,
Selections from the auction will be exhibited aboard the Queen Mary 2 cruise ship during its weeklong voyage from New York to England starting Aug. 9.
The hair comes from the estate of Frieda Hull, who obtained it from Monroe’s hairdresser. The hair from the star of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and "How to Marry a Millionaire" has an estimated value of $6,000 to $8,000, and is stored in an ultraviolet-protected case.
Hull was a member of the “Monroe Six” fans, a New York City-based group of teenagers who photographed Monroe wherever they could, according to Julien's Auctions. Rare items from the archive include unseen color photos of Monroe singing “Happy Birthday” for President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962, and slides of her on location as she filmed the now famous subway skirt-blowing scene for "The Seven Year Itch."
Other celebrities, including Elvis Presley and David Bowie, have had hair auctioned for posterity at far higher prices than the $4,000 estimates.
A lock of Presley's hair from 1958, when he was inducted into the U.S. Army and sent to Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, sold in 2010 for $20,000, according to Julien's. Bowie's two-inch blond clipping from 1983 was for a wig mistress working on a wax figure for Madame Tussauds. The hair, held by a piece of blue string, sold last month for more than $18,750, according to Heritage Auctions.
