Marilyn Monroe’s Possessions Are Going Up for Auction

This November, classic movie lovers will have an opportunity to purchase their own piece of film history. Marilyn Monroe's letters, costumes, and artwork are going out on tour in honor of what would have been the movie star’s 90th birthday, Vogue reports, before being auctioned off later this year.

Monroe, who died in 1962 at the age of 36, has always been somewhat enigmatic: Though she was often typecast in “dumb blonde” and femme fatale roles, Monroe was an ambitious actress with an immensely complex personal life. The auction, which will feature over 800 items and be accompanied by an exhibition, will provide new insights into the actress' mysterious inner life.

In addition to iconic outfits and jewelry from How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), The Seven Year Itch (1955), and Some Like It Hot (1959), the auction will include sketches and artwork by Monroe, as well as many of her personal letters and notes. The New York Times reports that some of the more personal items in the auction include a note Monroe scribbled onto a hotel pad expressing her anxieties about love and marriage, and a letter written to Paula Strasberg after her stay at a New York psychiatric clinic in 1961.

Other items listed on the auction house website are more mundane, giving insight into Monroe’s daily life during happier times. These include makeup, tax documents, receipts, clothing, food, and more. Martin Nolan, the executive director of Julien’s Auctions, told Vogue he hopes the auction helps fans discover unknown facets of Monroe’s life. “The world didn’t know that she was an artist,” Nolan said. “Here, we see Marilyn as the intellectual, we see Marilyn as the poet, as the artist. But we also see Marilyn as the very vulnerable.”