Fans of Marilyn Monroe have won a battle to preserve her mark on Los Angeles and are a step closer to seeing a towering statue of the silver screen icon remain in Palm Springs.

Fans of Marilyn Monroe have won a battle to preserve her mark on Los Angeles and are a step closer to seeing a towering statue of the silver screen icon remain in Palm Springs.

The Los Angeles home where Monroe briefly lived and died has been declared a historic cultural monument, while a Palm Springs planning commission decision boosted chances that a 26-foot (8-meter) statue called “Forever Marilyn” will stay in place.

The Los Angeles City Council voted for the historic designation Wednesday after a lengthy battle over whether the home in the tony Brentwood neighborhood would be demolished, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The current owners live next door and wanted to raze the house in order to expand their estate. The council, however, was unanimous in moving to save it.

“There’s no other person or place in the city of Los Angeles as iconic as Marilyn Monroe and her Brentwood home,” Traci Park, the area’s council representative, said before the vote.

Monroe bought the house for $75,000 and died there just months later on Aug. 4, 1962, from an apparent overdose. The current owners, Brinah Milstein and Roy Bank, bought the house for $8.35 million and obtained a demolition permit but ran into opposition.

They contend the house has been changed so much over the years that it no longer is historic, and that it has become a neighborhood nuisance due to tourist traffic.

The process that led to the designation was “biased, unconstitutional and rigged,” Peter C. Sheridan, an attorney for Milstein and Bank, said in a statement to The Associated Press.

Sheridan asserted that Park and her staff were not responsive to the owners’ efforts to find a solution and ignored opposition by civic and homeowners’ groups.

The attorney also said the city had “granted dozens of permits to over 14 different prior owners to change the home through numerous remodels, resulting in there being nothing left reflecting Ms. Monroe’s brief time there 60 years ago.” In Palm Springs, the “Forever Marilyn” statute depicts Monroe in the famous billowing dress scene from “The Seven Year Itch.” It has been moved around the U.S. and elsewhere, including a previous stint in Palm Springs, and is now back. A hotel industry group that owns the statue wants it to remain permanently but some residents oppose it.

A technical decision about the location by the planning commission on Wednesday marked a step toward keeping the statue, The Desert Sun reported. The matter continues before the Palm Springs City Council in the future. (AP) GSP

Los Angeles:

The Los Angeles home where Marilyn Monroe died was declared a historic landmark on Wednesday, thwarting plans by its current owners to demolish the property.

The house was home to the “Some Like It Hot” screen siren for the final six months of her life up to her death from a drug overdose in 1962.

More than half a century on, Monroe remains one of the most beloved figures in US pop culture, and fans as well as conservationists have closely followed a row over the future of the home.

Property heiress Brinah Milstein and her reality TV producer husband Roy Bank bought the Spanish Colonial-style home in the swanky Brentwood neighbourhood last summer for $8.35 million.

The couple owned the house next door and intended to combine the two properties. That construction would have involved razing the Monroe home.

But when a demolition permit was issued last September, a furore quickly followed, and local politicians moved quickly to designate the building’s protected status.

Last month, the owners sued the city of Los Angeles for “illegal and unconstitutional conduct.”

Their petition noted Monroe had “occasionally” lived in the home for “a mere six months”, and the couple claim that more than a dozen previous owners since 1962 have already changed the building beyond recognition.

Those objections were overruled Wednesday, as city councillors approved the designation of the house as a historic cultural monument.

Monroe bought the 3,000-square-foot single-story hacienda in 1962 just after her divorce from playwright Arthur Miller.

“There is no other person or place in the city of Los Angeles as iconic as Marilyn Monroe and her Brentwood home,” said councillor Traci Park, whose district includes the house in question.

“Some of the most world-famous images ever taken of her were in that home, on those grounds and near her pool.

“There is likely no woman in history or culture who captures the imagination of the public the way Marilyn Monroe did. Even all these years later, her story still resonates and inspires many of us today.”

Monroe’s smouldering looks and breathy delivery made her one of the most bankable movie stars of her era.

The “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” star was linked during her lifetime with some of the most eligible men of her era, including president John F. Kennedy, famously singing “Happy Birthday, Mr President” at Madison Square Garden.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Iconic star Marilyn Monroe’s only residence is safe from demolition for now as the Los Angeles City Council passed a motion on Friday to designate it a historic and cultural monument. The actress died of a drug overdose in 1962. 

The motion, introduced by Councilwoman Traci Park, said that the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission of the director of planning review the 2,900-square-foot Spanish colonial-style home to determine if it can be listed among the city’s historic cultural monuments, KTLA5 reported. 

“It is imperative that the City’s historic-cultural treasures be celebrated, and foremost, that its historical sites be preserved for future generations. As such, the historic-cultural merits of this property need to be assessed,” the motion reads.

The city’s Board of Building and Safety Commissioners immediately revoked a demolition permit that had been issued a day earlier. The City Council motion itself also bars major alterations to the property while the review of its potential status as a landmark is underway.

Paige said she visited the house on Thursday and that no work had been done at the site, currently owned by a little-known entity called Glory of the Snow Trust, Reuters reported. 

Monroe purchased the single-story, 2,900-square-foot (270-sq-meter) house in the early 1960s for $75,000 after the end of her third marriage, to playwright Arthur Miller, according to the Los Angeles Times. It was the only residence the actress, who spent part of her childhood in an orphanage and foster care, ever independently owned.

The screen legend, star of such films as “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” “Some Like It Hot” and “The Misfits,” was found dead in a bedroom of the home in August 1962 at the age of 36. The cause of death was ruled to be acute barbiturate poisoning.

The Times reported that the half-acre (0.20-hectare) property, which included a swimming pool and guest house, was purchased in 2017 for $7.25 million by Glory of the Snow LLC, then managed by a hedge fund executive. It was sold to the Glory of the Snow Trust for $8.35 million earlier this year.

No representatives for the trust have been identified by Councilwoman Park, and the reason for the planned demolition remained unclear, Paige said. The Times said the trust is not listed in property records alongside any person’s name.

Word that the gated, four-bedroom hacienda at the end of a cul-de-sac was slated to be torn town sparked expressions of outrage on social media, the Times reported. Park, whose council district includes Brentwood, said her office had received hundreds of calls urging her to take action to spare the house.

“For people all over the world, Marilyn Monroe was more than just a movie icon,” Park said at a news conference, calling the performer “a shining example of what it means to overcome adversity.

The actress named the home Cursum Perficio, a Latin phrase meaning “My journey ends here,” which adorned tiles on the home’s front porch.