Ritzy desert city’s bitter fight over giant statue of Marilyn Monroe that’s scandalized residents takes fresh turn

A massive statue of Marilyn Monroe that towered over Palm Springs for years is being moved after a lengthy legal battle.

Forever Marilyn is 8 meters high and is located in the center of the city in California.

It’s been around since June 2021, but has already caused some controversy.

Local residents expressed displeasure over the more risqué qualities of the Marilyn monolith, as it is based on the star’s influential scene in 1955’s “The Seven Year Itch.”

It also blocks the view of the Palm Springs Art Museum – reasons that successfully influenced the city to try to have it removed. That said, it won’t be far gone – having already been moved five times.

“The City of Palm Springs is pleased to announce that during today’s closed session, the City Council reached an agreement in principle with PS Resorts and CReMa to relocate the Forever Marilyn statue,” the Palm Springs City Council said Thursday.

The new location has yet to be determined, but the city said the statue will be placed somewhere in Downtown Park.

Officials expect to be able to determine the specific location in the nearby park within a month, and then continue clearing the street during that month.

That evening a public hearing was held to discuss the logistics of the holiday.

“The City Council is very pleased that a satisfactory resolution has been reached to this issue, which has caused so much division in our community,” the statement concluded.

The saga surrounding the statue dates back 14 years to when it was first installed on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile in 2011.

However, the statue was soon vandalized three times, with the then-director of the Chicago Public Arts Group blaming the statue’s sexually suggestive nature.

“There is little room in our society for sexually expressive imagery,” Jon Pounds said after the statue was defaced with red paint, according to The Chicago Tribune.

‘The social contract does not work because it already has a political meaning.’

Within a year, it was moved to the corner of Palm Canyon Drive and Tahquitz Canyon Way in Palm Springs. It was then moved again after a farewell ceremony at the Palm Springs Village Fest in March 2014.

Its new home for the next year and a half would be the 42-acre Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey, as part of a 2014 retrospective honoring its creator, Seward Johnson, who was born in New Brunswick. Johnson died in March 2020 at age 89.

However, the statue remained in place due to its popularity, until September 2015, when it was decided to move it again, after the retrospective exhibition ended.

It was then transported more than 10,000 miles to Rosalind Park in the Australian city of Bendigo, where it was included in the Bendigo Art Gallery’s Marilyn Monroe exhibition.

In 2018, the statue was returned to the United States, to Latham Park in Stamford, Connecticut, where it was part of another exhibition honoring Johnson’s work.

There the statue again caused controversy, as local residents complained that the statue appeared to be showing off her underwear in a nearby church.

Meanwhile, authorities in Pasadena campaigned to get Forever Marilyn back, as the song was a huge success locally and was sorely missed.

Within a year, then-Mayor of Palm Springs Robert Moon announced the statue’s return, having been stored in a disassembled state in The Garden State following the Johnson exhibit.

A year and a half later, in April 2021, it was unveiled just east of the Palm Springs Art Museum, a location that had been announced just two months earlier.

According to the announcement, Forever Marilyn would remain in the affluent California city for up to three years, after which the statue’s local economic impact would be assessed and a decision made on its future.

Within two months, however, a lawsuit was filed in the California courts to block construction of the facility. This lawsuit was brought by a body known as the Committee to Relocate Marilyn (or Crema), which included several influential Palm Springs residents.

Among them were fashion designer Trina Turk and collector Chris Menrad, who criticized not only the placement of the statue but also the prolonged closure of part of Museum Way to allow tourists to flock to it.

Crema argued that the decision could not be approved by the city council and saw the council overruled within two months.

However, last year the case was retried on appeal and is now pending in Riverside County District Court.

The hotel group that owns the statue, PS Resorts, was also involved, working with the city to settle the lawsuit.

They all issued statements acknowledging that settlement negotiations are still ongoing, while a new, concrete location remains uncertain.

But based on the city’s statement, it appears the long-running legal battle is finally over, although another passerby takes issue with the amount and content of the artwork.

The three parties will meet later this week to discuss the specific location within Downtown Park where “Forever Marilyn” will be moved, as well as payment of attorney fees and other costs, the city said Thursday.