More than six decades after Marilyn Monroe died, the modest Los Angeles house where she spent the final months of her life has become the center of a very different kind of drama. The 2,300-square-foot Spanish Colonial home was bought for $8.35 million by Brinah Milstein and Roy Bank, who planned to replace it with a modern residence, as per a report by Reuters.
Then Los Angeles stepped in. The city designated the property a historic and cultural monument in 2024, blocking the owners' plans to tear it down. What followed was a legal fight that has now moved into federal court, with the owners arguing that the government has placed the burden of preserving a public piece of history on private property owners.
At the center of the dispute is a question that reaches far beyond Monroe's old home: how much control can a city exercise over private property in the name of historic preservation?
