Marilyn Monroe Statue In Palm Springs To Be Relocated

PALM SPRINGS, CA — Palm Springs' towering statue of Marilyn Monroe will soon have a new home, with officials saying Thursday another location is being finalized in hopes of resolving a legal challenge over its current spot on Museum Way.

A group of residents called the "Committee to Relocate Marilyn" sued the city in 2021 over the placement of the statue and closure of Museum Way to accommodate it, arguing the move violated city and state codes, while also blocking the main artery to the Palm Springs Art Museum.

Trina Turk, a member of the Committee to Relocate Marilyn, wrote on a GoFundMe page for the group Thursday that PS Resorts — the nonprofit tourism group that purchased the statue three years ago and installed it — has informed the city that the statue will be moved.

The committee "supports such a move and hopes to work with the city to resolve remaining issues pertaining to this matter without the need for further litigation," Turk wrote.

According to the Desert Sun, Palm Springs Mayor Jeffrey Bernstein announced at a Thursday evening City Council meeting that the statue will be moved to a still-undetermined downtown park. He said a decision on the exact location would be made in the next month.

The council approved the move during a closed-session meeting earlier in the day, the Desert Sun reported, adding that the move is an effort to resolve the lawsuit by the Committee to Relocate Marilyn.

PS Resorts purchased the sculpture from Seward Johnson Atelier in February 2021 for $1 million plus installation costs. It arrived in several pieces, and the installation required a 60-ton crane to hoist the towering figure into place in June 2021.

The initial agreement between the city and PS Resorts allowed for the statue to remain in its Museum Way location for three years — a time period that is now expiring. But PS Resorts' chairman, Aftab Dada, said previously he would have liked the statue to remain at its current location permanently.

The 17-ton statue crafted of steel and aluminum was first unveiled in Chicago in 2011 before moving to the corner of Palm Canyon Drive and Tahquitz Canyon Way in Palm Springs in 2012, where it was on display for about two years.

"Forever Marilyn" was designed by artist Seward Johnson, who died in March 2020.

The humongous sculpture recreates the moment in the 1955 film "The Seven Year Itch" in which Monroe's white dress surges up toward her waist as she stands on a windy Manhattan subway grate.