The dress that Marilyn Monroe wore when she sang "Happy Birthday" to President Kennedy in 1962 sold for nearly $1.3 million

October 28, 1999
Web posted at: 10:25 a.m. EDT (1425 GMT)

In this story: Eternity ring goes for $772,000 1,200 registered to bid RELATED STORIES, SITES

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but it was a white silk evening dress that brought in the big bucks at a lavish New York auction Wednesday night.

The white gown, encrusted with 6,000 rhinestone beads and sequins, was worn by Marilyn Monroe the night she sang "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" to John F. Kennedy in Madison Square Garden in 1962.

The gown sold for $1,267,500 -- to a New York collectibles store owner. The crowd erupted in applause when bidding hit $1 million.

GALLERY Browse through some of the Marilyn Monroe items on the auction block

The late film star's platinum eternity ring, encrusted with 34 baguette-cut diamonds and given to her by husband Joe DiMaggio sold for $772,500. (The ring originally had 35 diamonds, but one was lost.)

The pre-sale estimates of the ring's likely selling price had ranged from $30,000 to $50,000 The two-day, star-studded auction was billed by Christie's as "possibly the last and most lavish celebrity auction of the millennium."

More than 1,500 personal items belonging to the legendary and ill-fated star were sold. Among the high-dollar items were a black sequin dress she wore in 1954 to sing to American soldiers in Korea -- it went for $112,000.

Monroe's platinum eternity band set with 35 baguette-cut diamonds (with one missing) sold for $700,000

A white lacquered baby grand piano, originally belonging to her mother, fetched $600,000. A picture of Monroe autographed by several of her Hollywood co-stars, including Groucho Marx, Jimmy Stewart, Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart sold for $88,300.

Among the dresses for sale were a racy scarlet halter dress and an ivory crepe evening sheath worn to the premiere of "Some Like It Hot."

Other items auctioned, most of them in storage for four decades, included 400 books from her personal library, and mementos from her marriages to DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller.

A plaster floor lamp, expected to sell at up to $4,000, sold for $21,850. The auction aired live on the American Movie Classics channel, and 1,200 people registered to bid.

More than 100 telephone lines accommodated bidders who couldn't join a standing-room-only crowd of 1,500 inside the Rockefeller Center auction room.

The auction house sold 28,000 catalogues at $85 a pop for a cool $2.38 million; 75,000 visitors attended previews in six cities across three continents.

Monroe left all her belongings to her acting coach Lee Strasberg, who passed them on to his widow Anna. Sales of the books will benefit the Literary Partners, a New York-based adult and family literacy project. Her fur collection will benefit the World Wildlife Foundation.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.