BUYER PAYS $5.6 MILLION FOR MARILYN MONROE DRESS

The dress belonged to actress Debbie Reynolds who acquired it in 1971 when she bought all of Monroe's wardrobe as it was off-loaded by the 20th Century Fox studio.  But the upkeep of the items drove Reynolds increasingly into debt, and she failed to find a museum prepared to take the collection in its entirety.

The dress actually sold for $4.6 million, but the auction house will take $1 million commission extra from the buyer.

The garment was designed by William Travilla and was made from rayon-acetate to give it sharp pleats

Among the other items sold were the racing clothes worn by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1944 film National Velvet, which went for $60,000, as well as her headdress from Cleopatra. Taylor had given Reynolds many of the objects in the collection.

A dress and a pair of ruby slippers worn in a screen test for The Wizard of Oz by Judy Garland sold together for $1.75 million; and Charlie Chaplin's bowler hat, as worn in The Little Tramp and other films, went for $135,000.