For four tons of eternal rest next to Marilyn Monroe and Hugh Hefner

Beverly Hills – Resting forever next to Marilyn Monroe and Hugh Hefner? That is possible for just under four tons. Auction house Juliens will open an auction in Beverly Hills (US) on Thursday for a crypt in the same wall where the two deceased stars are buried. Bidding starts at $50,000, but this amount is expected to rise to $400,000. The auction will last until next Saturday.

The famous grave marker is located in the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary in Beverly Hills. The grave is one row up and four spots to the left of Monroe’s final resting place. Next to Monroe and Hefner are also the world famous Breakfast at Tiffany’s-author Truman Capote and Charlie’s Angels-actress Farrah Fawcett. Normally, a place in the mausoleum costs about $46,000.

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Martin Nolan, the CFO of auction house Juliens, points out the crypt to be auctioned. Hugh Hefner and Marilyn Monroe were buried in the same wall.

Monroe died in 1962 at the age of 36. Her ex-husband Joe DiMaggio held a private funeral in the Memorial Park chapel. He is said to have chosen this spot because Grace Goddard and Ana Lower were buried there. They had both taken care of Monroe when she was a child. The tomb is a popular destination for Monroe fans from all over the world.

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Expensive graves

Monroe graced Hefner’s very first Playboy cover when the magazine launched in 1953. In 1992, the Playboy founder purchased the crypt right next to Monroe’s grave and was buried there when he passed away in 2017. “Spending an eternity next to Marilyn Monroe is an opportunity that I will not let pass me by,” Hefner said in an interview with LA Times in 2009. According to the magazine, he paid $75,000 for it at the time.

In 2009, prices for a final resting place next to Monroe also rose considerably. In an online auction on the E-Bay platform for the spot directly above Monroe, the highest bid came in at $4.6 million. For unknown reasons, the sale fell through. In 2020, an owner of a graveyard three feet above Monroe and Hefner lowered the asking price from $790,000 to $745,000; CNN reports that it is unknown whether the grave was actually sold.

Playboy Auction

The place in the crypt is not the only thing that will go under the hammer at the auction house this weekend. Six hundred objects belonging to Monroe, Hefner and the Playboy company are being auctioned. According to Juliens, these artefacts come together ‘for the first time in history’.

For example, Monroe’s first Playboy cover is auctioned; Hefner’s famous velvet suit coat and satin pajamas are also for sale. An orange lipstick from Elizabeth Arden is also on the list: it is said to have been owned by Monroe in the 1960s.