Los Angeles, the only cemetery crypt located near Marilyn Monroe and Hugh Hefner, will go up for auction on Saturday. It is expected that this burial place will fetch between $200,000 and $400,000.
The burial plot (specifically Wall B, Space C-3), at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary in Los Angeles, is one row above Monroe's final resting place and four places to the immediate left of Hefner's. This proximity makes it close to his eternal neighbor, Hefner.
This sale, organized by Julien's Auctions, is part of a wide-ranging auction of belongings of Hefner and Monroe. Among these belongings are Monroe's first Playboy magazine cover from 1953, Hefner's burgundy smoking jacket and silk pajamas, and Monroe's orange-toned Elizabeth Arden lipstick from the 1960s. While the starting bid for the burial plot is $50,000, the auction house expects it to reach at least four times that amount.
After Monroe's death in 1962, her former husband Joe DiMaggio arranged a private funeral for her at Westwood Village. Playboy founder Hefner later arranged for a crypt next to the actress to spend eternity. "Not to take advantage of the opportunity to spend eternity next to Marilyn would be too sweet to pass up," he said. According to the Los Angeles Times in 2009, Hefner spent $75,000 in 1992 to secure his place.
The prices of crypts in the famous LA memorial park have fluctuated over the years. In 2009, an eBay auction for the area directly above Monroe saw bids surpassing $4.6 million, but the sale reportedly did not go through. Similarly, in 2020, the owner of a plot a few feet above Monroe and Hefner lowered their asking price from $790,000 to $745,000, but it is unclear if it sold.
Other notable figures resting at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary include writer Truman Capote and "Charlie's Angels" star Farrah Fawcett. Plots in the mausoleums generally start at $46,995 according to the mortuary's website.
According to Julien's Auctions, over 600 historical items belonging to Monroe, Hefner, and Playboy Enterprises will be up for sale from March 28th to March 30th- "the first time ever assembled throughout history" items.