Marilyn Monroe's iconic $8.3million Los Angeles home is saved from demolition and declared a 'historic cultural monument' after real estate heiress and her TV producer husband who live next door tried to tear it down

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Marilyn Monroe's iconic $8.3 million Los Angeles home has been saved from demolition and declared a 'historic cultural monument'.

The Brentwood mansion was due to be flattened by its owners, next door neighbors Roy Bank and Brinah Milstein, who hoped to use the land to expand their estate.

The couple snapped up the property in July 2023 and obtained a demolition permit, but it was quickly opposed by conservationists and fans of the late actress.

On Wednesday, a motion to protect the home by granting it landmark status passed unanimously after being introduced by councilmember Traci Park last year. 

'There's no other person or place in the city of Los Angeles as iconic as Marilyn Monroe and her Brentwood home,' Park said. 'To lose this piece of history, the only home that Monroe ever owned, would be a devastating blow for historic preservation.'

Monroe bought the Spanish Colonial-style home in 1962 for $75,000 and died there six months later of an apparent drug overdose at the age of 36.

TV producer Bank and real estate heiress Milstein argued that the home should not be designated as a landmark due to the brevity of the star's stay there.

In May they sued the city for acting unconstitutionally in order to preserve the house, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Milstein and Bank argued the house has gone through another near-total transformation since the time Monroe occupied it.

'There is not a single piece of the house that includes any physical evidence that Ms. Monroe ever spent a day at the house, not a piece of furniture, not a paint chip, not a carpet, nothing,' the suit read, according to the New York Times.

The house has changed hands at least 14 times since Monroe's death, and undergone numerous remodels about which the city has 'taken no action regarding the now alleged ‘historic’ or ‘cultural’ status of the house,' the suit claimed. 

However a judge denied their injunction request to stop the historical designation. 

A trial-setting conference for the pending lawsuit is set for August 13, The New York Times reports.

It was not just the couple who opposed the designation, locals already fed up with tourists traipsing across their neighborhood raised concerns the status could lead to an influx of even more people.

Though the house at Fifth Helena Drive is not visible from the street, fans of the late icon often drop in by the bus load to deposit flowers and attempt to peer past the hedges.

Residents reported 'scary' encounters with devotees convinced that they were relatives of Monroe or could find out more about the conspiracy theory she was murdered. 

Since 2013, the famed house has been flagged by the city's survey program as being 'potentially historic,' but at no time in these last 11 years has it merited the upgrade. 

One possible solution which was floated was to relocate the home, enabling the current owners to proceed with their development. 

The property was the first house she owned by herself after the end of her third marriage to playwright Arthur Miller.

The American actress, model, and singer was found dead in the bedroom in August 1962. 

The cause of death was ruled to be acute barbiturate poisoning, a type of depressant.

At the time Monroe was at the peak of her fame and the most recognizable woman in the world.