Couple sues LA for right to demolish Marilyn Monroe’s former home

UPDATED MAY 9 at 1:30 p.m.:

A Los Angeles lawsuit entangles a television producer, a city with deep pockets and a Brentwood home once owned by Marilyn Monroe, whose life ended in a back bedroom.

Real estate heiress Brinah Milstein Bank of the Milstein Properties family in New York and her husband, reality TV producer Roy Bank, have sued the City of Los Angeles for their alleged right to bulldoze a Spanish hacienda-style home at 12305 5th Helena Drive, Business Insider reported.

The Banks bought the first and last home owned by the Hollywood siren in July for $8.35 million. They bought the house next door, a 6,000-square-foot dwelling at 12306 6th Helena Drive, in 2016 for $8.2 million.

But their plans to raze the 2,900-square-foot Monroe home to make room to expand their house next door created an international outcry — and an order by the city to temporarily stave off the wrecking ball.

Days after reports surfaced that the century-old home faced demolition, the Los Angeles City Council in September rushed through a motion to consider designating the property a historic cultural monument, a move that would invalidate the demolition permits.

The City Council will vote on whether to declare the house a historic cultural monument by mid-June.

In a written statement to The Real Deal, Milstein and Bank’s attorney Peter Sheridan alleged the city “engaged in an illegal and unconstitutional conspiracy” involving government officials and tour operators and violated the law “with regards to the quasi-judicial process required for evaluation of alleged historic cultural monuments.”

Monroe bought the one-story, four-bedroom home in early 1962 for $77,500 — or roughly $790,000 in 2023 dollars — after her divorce from playwright Arthur Miller. Less than six months later, the 36-year-old actress was found dead from a drug overdose in her bedroom.

Its front step tiles read “Cursum Perficio” — Latin for “my journey ends here.”

The Banks contend the house has been “substantially altered” since Monroe’s death, according to their complaint.

“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 lawsuit states.

The Banks claim they were issued a demolition permit from the city, which was initially “held” for 30 days to allow for objections. 

No objections were raised and permits were subsequently issued, they say, which led to them incurring more than $30,000 in expenses before receiving an actual notice of a “stay” invoked by the city.

Their lawsuit also alleges that the city’s push for the designation violated its own codes, which has deprived the plaintiffs of their “vested rights as owners of real property” and has caused them “irreparable harm.”

Liz Waytkus, the U.S. executive director of the conservation nonprofit Docomomo, told Dezeen last month that the demolition highlighted a “systemic” problem in the area.

“The land has become more valuable than the house, and even if people understand the value of such a home, location and land value often trump architectural significance,” she said.

Correction: Previous story incorrectly identified Milstein and Bank.

— Dana Bartholomew

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