Lincoln Museum Sells Marilyn Monroe Dress To Save Artifacts
May 16, 2018 | In the PressFrom Springfield Patch (https://patch.com/illinois/springfield-il/lincoln-museum-sells-marilyn-monroe-dress-save-artifacts)
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is selling a dress worn by legendary Hollywood movie star Marilyn Monroe, along with several other items, in the hopes of saving memorabilia linked to the 16th president.
The museum is struggling to pay back a loan used to purchase Lincoln artifacts, to the tune of $9.7 million, according to the Chicago Tribune. Items including the dress will be auctioned at a June 23 auction by Julien's Auctions in Las Vegas.
The three-quarter-length-sleeved black scoop neck dress is valued at $40,000 to $60,000.
According to the auction site, another more iconic Marilyn Monroe dress — which she wore to famously croon "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" to President John F. Kennedy — fetched $4.8 million. The sale made the Guinness Book of World Records as the most expensive dress ever auctioned.
The Lincoln Foundation purchased the black Marilyn Monroe dress about 11 years ago. Foundation officials hope the sale will help offset debt it incurred when it purchased multiple artifacts connected to the president.
In addition to the dress sale, the foundation has launched a GoFundMe to help keep items connected to the president off the auction block. According to the campaign, that includes "his presidential seal, stovepipe hat, locks of his hair, gloves he carried with him the night of the assassination, stained with the very blood he spilled that this nation might have a new birth of freedom."
The campaign adds:
If a single Lincoln artifact goes to auction, taken from the public realm, then we, as a nation are collectively diminished and must look ourselves in the mirror and take responsibility. It is not any one individual's or group's responsibility to bear, it is all of ours to bear. What would Lincoln do if faced with this problem? He would solve it and not let us down. In that same vain, we must solve it and not let him down. We should, post haste, set our hearts, minds and yes, money to the task we have before us. We are dutybound to do so and we should, as Lincoln said, dare to do our duty as we understand it….to be dedicated here to the unfinished work we have before us.
The GoFundMe campaign was launched Monday and as of Wednesday night had raised $1,570 towards its $9.7 million goal.
