Marilyn Monroe’s Wedding Ring from Joe DiMaggio to Go on Sale

Pictured: Marilyn Monroe along side her diamond eternity band.

In 1954, Joe DiMaggio gave Marilyn Monroe a platinum eternity band set with 35 baguette-cut diamonds (see above). Flash forward over 60 years, and that wedding ring is going on the auction block. The ring will be auctioned off,  along with Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from the “Wizard of Oz”,  at 3-day auction in December.  The ring (with one diamond missing) is estimated to be sold for $300,000 to $500,000 USD.  I find the continual selling and merchandising of Marilyn tragic.  She was a fashion icon, with her Chanel No. 5 perfume, her pearls, capri pants, oversized sweaters, Pucci dresses and her beautiful handbags.  It’s too bad all those items were not left to a cherished loved one.  Instead everything she left behind went to her “estate” and periodically items are sold off to benefit the estate.

Although Marilyn left her acting coach, Lee Strasberg, her personal effects, which amounted to just over half of her residuary estate, she wanted him to “distribute [the effects] among my friends, colleagues and those to whom I am devoted.”  That never happened.  Everything was put into storage and later, it was sold at Christie’s.  Now her ring from the Yankee Clipper will be sold again at an auction. The ring is missing one of the diamond baguettes, but I expect it will still sell for a large amount. Her dress from The Seven Year Itch was just sold by Debbie Reynolds at auction for about 4 million. Clearly, there is a market for Marilyn.

Replicas of Marilyn’s ring already are in market.  A company called Amoro Fine Jewelry is selling an eternity band very similar to the ring Joe gave Marilyn Monroe.  The Amoro rings retail for  $1,395 to $1,750. I’m sure they will be sold using Marilyn’s image and likeness.  What do you think readers? would you pay that amount for a ring like Marilyn’s?