Palm Springs set to relocate ‘Forever Marilyn’

Marilyn is headed to a move! The city of Palm Springs announced that it has reached an agreement to relocate the "Forever Marilyn" sculpture to the Downtown Park.

The move will settle a lawsuit filed by the Committee to Relocate Marilyn in 2021 over Marilyn's current location on Museum Way. The committee argued its placement violated city and state codes, while also
blocking the main artery to the Palm Springs Art Museum.

“The City of Palm Springs is pleased to announce that, during today’s closed session, the City Council reached an agreement in principle with P.S. Resorts and CReMa to relocate the Forever Marilyn sculpture to a location to be determined in the Downtown Park and move forward with the street vacation. The City expects to have finalization of the specific location within the Downtown Park in the next 30 days. The City working with all of the partners will proceed as promptly as is responsible to resolve the remaining logistical issues. The street vacation public hearing will move forward this evening as planned and will incorporate the terms of this agreement. The City Council is very pleased to have found a satisfactory solution to this issue, which has divided so many within our community.”

- Palm Springs Mayor Jeffrey Bernstein

"CReMa 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.

The Palm Springs City Council is set to vote to finalize the move during tonight's city council meeting. News Channel 3's Bianca Ventura will have the full details coming up at 10 and 11 p.m.

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.

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