When Marilyn Monroe bought her first and only house, at the age of 35, she almost didn’t believe it. In one of her last interviews, with the magazine life, just a few weeks before he died, he showed his small domain to photographers and reporters among boxes yet to be opened and handicrafts recently purchased in Mexico. “And he has walls!” she exclaimed, happily. It was his only true home, the only home that belonged to him. A house located in the exclusive neighborhood of Brentwood, west of Los Angeles, in which he only lived for a few months and in which he died in August 1962. After his death and during these 60 years the house has passed from owner to owner. owner, with the pertinent modifications, but always preserving its essence. However, now some billionaires have taken over the place and intend to demolish it. No one seems to be able to stop them, not even the city. Because now they have sued the town so they can tear it down and do whatever they want with the land.
The lawsuit took place on Monday, but was known on Tuesday. The one who has sued the city has been the couple formed by the billionaire Brinah Milstein and the producer Roy Bank. It was they who, last August, bought Monroe’s house in Los Angeles for about $8.35 million. They knew her well: they live in the neighboring mansion. From the beginning her intention was to pull him away; As has now been learned, they intend to build a new home and expand their property. The news generated immense discomfort in the city, which has already lost many of its most important buildings due to lack of conservation and care. But shortly after it was known, in September, the Los Angeles Department of Citizen Planning nominated it to enter the list of Historical-Cultural Monuments (HCM) of the city along with 1,200 other protected places, which that paralyzed the demolition. These months they have continued to take steps in protecting the place, and in March it was approved for the City Council to vote on its designation as HCM. But perhaps the efforts are insufficient.
In their lawsuit, Milstein and Bank argue that the house, which has had 14 owners in these six decades without Monroe, has already undergone many important changes and that up to a dozen permits have been granted for its renovations, as stated Los Angeles Times, who has had access to the court documents. According to the couple, city officials acted unconstitutionally and a posteriori when seeking protection for the place, and they accuse them of plotting “covert machinations” to preserve a site that, according to their criteria, does not deserve to be considered a monument.
The new owners even question whether the actress spent time there. She bought that little house, 270 square meters and a single floor—very different from the mansions where many famous people live today—just a year and a half before she died and she lived there until her last days. They, on the other hand, are not clear. “There is not a single item in the house that includes physical proof that Marilyn Monroe spent a single day in it, not a single piece of furniture, not a piece of peeling paint, not a rug, nothing,” the complaint reads.
Members of the Brentwood Homeowners Association, a local neighborhood association, explained to this newspaper in August that they felt “very sad” about this threat, but that they had “no power or jurisdiction to intercede.” His neighborhood, like so many historical ones in the city, is threatened by millionaires who barely respect the scarce heritage of a city in which everything has a price. In fact, the controversy seems endless: a few weeks ago it was learned that the couple formed by actor Chris Pratt and writer Katherine Schwarzenegger had demolished a 1950s house in the same neighborhood to build a mansion. The Zimmerman House, designed by American architect Craig Ellwood and landscaped by Garrett Eckbo, considered one of the pioneers of modern gardens, is today rubble.
![The patio of Marilyn Monroe's home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, in an image from 1962.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/W2CTCSKE25BC7MNSX76ERNWH5U.jpg?auth=540ca2ea484ccfa036cd38577a2bfccb6d27abb961bdc6b29a86427ee6f6e1ae&width=414)
Monroe’s house was called “Cursum Perficio”: My journey ends here. After living with her three husbands and also in the Roosevelt Hotel (next to the Walk of Fame) and in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, this was her first and only home, made in the so-called Spanish style, with colonial touches, tall wooden beams and a pool in which, legend has it, he never bathed. It cost him then $75,000 (with inflation, about $775,000 in 2024), but now many more millions are coming for her. Brinah Milstein’s family is very powerful. According to data from Forbes in 2015 (the most current) has more than 3,000 million dollars. They emigrated from Russia to New York at the beginning of the 20th century and managed to build an empire in the world of construction and with the creation of a savings bank; Furthermore, they are philanthropists of both the arts and medicine. Brinah is one of their descendants. For his part, Roy Bank is a producer and owner of a company called Banca Studio, with which he makes television programs. The couple has been married for a decade.
12305 Fifth Helena Drive is not visible from the street, but it always has a few curious onlookers hanging around, and colorful tour buses often stop to point it out, even if only its wall is visible (a wall that, according to the lawsuit, is “a nuisance ” for the neighborhood. In 2013 the city already tried to protect it, but the proposal did not go ahead as the house was private and now the Department of Citizen Planning, the Cultural Heritage Commission and the City Council could not access it; They row to keep it afloat, in addition to the people of Brentwood, who know they can’t do anything but who fight against other even richer neighbors to keep the house of their most illustrious citizen standing.
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