Marilyn Monroe auction features star's make-up and gowns on 100th birthday

Marilyn Monroe auction features star's make-up and gowns on 100th birthdayJust nowShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleMadeline HalpertWatch: Marilyn Monroe's 100th birthday auctions include jewellery and private lettersAn auction with an array of memorabilia from Marilyn Monroe's estate and friends has already brought in thousands of dollars in bids on the 100th anniversary of her birth. The sale, which began on Thursday, features 185 items from the model and actress's life, including a 1950s evening purse worth an estimated $100,000 (£74,000), an evening gown and even her lip pomade. Julien's Auctions said the sale includes "countless never-before-seen photographs and slides of the star as well as rare and hard-to-find images hidden for decades". The star - who rose to fame as a sex symbol in the 1950s and died aged 36 - has continued to captivate the attention of Americans long after her passing. The Julien's auction is part of exhibitions and celebrations across the US this week honouring the blonde bombshell's birth on 1 June, 1926. Earlier this week, more than a thousand fans dressed as Monroe in her famous white-pleated dress in Palm Springs, California, to pose next to an iconic statue of her wearing the same outfit. A separate auction from the company Heritage included a Christian Dior skirt that Monroe wore on her honeymoon and a letter from her husband playwright Arthur Miller. Getty ImagesMore than 1,000 fans gathered in Palm Springs, a vacation destination for Monroe, to celebrate her 100th birthdayBorn Norma Jeane Mortenson, Monroe grew up in foster homes and was discovered by an army photographer while working in an aircraft factory during World War Two. She starred in a number of hits, including Some Like It Hot and Niagara, before her death from an overdose in 1962. The Julien's auction contains several items Monroe "personally owned, touched, and used, including pieces from her last residence in...