Moving to Palm Springs Park Within About 6 Month
PALM SPRINGS (CNS) – Ending a long-running legal saga over the placement of a 17-ton Marilyn Monroe statue near the Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs city officials announced Monday the statue will be relocated steps away inside Downtown Park within approximately six months.
A group of residents called the “Committee to Relocate Marilyn” initially sued the city in 2021 over the placement of the statue and closure of Museum Way to accommodate it, arguing the move violated city and state codes, while also blocking the main artery to the Palm Springs Art Museum.
Nonprofit tourism group 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.
“PS Resorts and the Committee to Relocate Marilyn have identified a highly visible and safe location in the Downtown Park that satisfies all parties involved,” Mayor Jeffrey Bernstein in a statement Monday. “The move is anticipated to occur no later than March 1 of 2025.”
Bernstein had previously said in a City Council meeting last month that the statue would be moved to a then-undetermined park.
The steel and aluminum statue 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.
For More Arts News Visit www.zapinin.com/arts
