DiMaggio Love Letter To Marilyn Monroe Auctioned For $78,000

Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe had a love that lasted long after both their deaths, as the going rate for a letter between the two at a recent auction proves. An auction for a variety of choice Marilyn Monroe items netted higher than expected prices in a number of cases. But two love letters between her and two of her famous paramours — and husbands — netted over $120,000 together.

A letter from baseball legend Joe DiMaggio that he wrote to Marilyn alone brought in over $78,000. According to CNN Money, unnamed buyers purchased the letter that DiMaggio wrote after he found out (very publicly) that Monroe was leaving him.

During a press conference that Joe was watching, Marilyn publicly said that she had already started divorce proceedings. It was the first that the New York Yankees Hall of Fame baseball had heard of her plans. DiMaggio and Monroe had only married less than one year earlier, and he was not interested in a divorce.

In the letter to Marilyn sold at auction, DiMaggio asked her to reconsider. Only a small portion of the letter was released publicly at the auction, at which one of Monroe’s bras also sold for about $20,000, according to the Inquisitr.

“Dear Baby — Don’t know what you’re [sic] thoughts are about me, but I can tell you I love you seriously, way deep in my heart, irregardless of anything.”

Monroe was married three times during her tumultuous life as one of America’s most famous actresses and sex symbols before her death in 1962 at only 36-years-old. One of her other marriages, immediately after Marilyn split from DiMaggio, was to famed American playwright Arthur Miller.

A letter from Monroe to Miller was also sold at the auction for $44,000. It was part of a series of letters that Miller wrote to Monroe before they were married. The auction house that sold the items, Julien’s in Beverly Hills, said the letters were “worthy of a movie script,” according to CNN.

Miller and Monroe were married for less than five years.

Other items and personal effects that once belonged to Monroe were sold for varying prices. The highest-selling item, according to the New York Daily News, was a silk overcoat that Marilyn was often photographed wearing. It was sold for $175,000. A black cocktail dress and an opera coat that once belonged to Marilyn Monroe were also sold for more than $93,000.