Wealthy LA Couple Wants to Demolish Marilyn Monroe's Iconic Home

A couple who owns Marilyn Monroe's former Los Angeles home is own suing the city for the right to demolish the home as they have plans to extend it. The owners, Brinah Milstein and Roy Bank, a wealthy real estate heires, and her reality TV producer husband, believe they have the right to demolish the home where the star died 61 years ago. Monroe purchased the home in Brentwood for $75k in 1962 as reported by The New York Post . But according to the couple, Monroe didn't reside in the home for too long, which they note in their legal paperwork. The city claims there are plans to make the home a historical landmark.

In the paperwork, the couple refers to the home as "the house where Marilyn Monroe occasionally lived for a mere six months before she tragically committed suicide 61 years ago." They also say that the home doesn't meet the city's landmark criteria. "All of these backroom machinations were in the name of preserving a house which in no way meets any of the criteria for an `Historic Cultural Monument," the lawsuit states, adding, "That much is bolstered by the fact, among others, that for 60 years through 14 owners and numerous remodels and building permits issued by the city, the city has taken no action regarding the now- alleged `historic' or `cultural' status of the house."

The couple wants to block the landmark process. They purchased the home for $8.35 million last summer and say they purchased it with plans to use it as a tear-down. They say they were initially granted a permit to do so, but their plans were halted when city leaders got wind, and they're exaggerating Monroe's connection to the home.

Monroe was found dead in the home at the age of 36. Her death was immediately suspected to be an overdose of sleeping pills.