Brinah Milstein and Roy Bank purchased the Brentwood property where Marilyn Monroe spent her final six months for $8.35 million in 2023. The owners obtained a demolition permit and planned to combine the site with an adjacent lot to improve the property. Preservationists persuaded the city of Los Angeles to designate the house as a historic-cultural monument, blocking demolition. The lawsuit argues there is no physical evidence in the house linking Monroe to the property and alleges the city conspired with for-profit tour operators and biased conservationists to deprive the owners' vested rights. City attorneys maintain that proper procedures were followed.
Shortly after the couple received a demolition permit, preservationists persuaded the city of Los Angeles to designate the house as a historic-cultural monument, sparing it from destruction. Milstein and Bank planned to combine the site with an adjacent lot, their residence since 2016, "to improve the property," Peter Sheridan, their attorney, said in an email. "LA has thousands of celebrities who live and die here," Sheridan said. "Is every house that those good folks lived in a 'historic monument'? Not in the least."
"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," according to the lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The suit claims the city unconstitutionally abused its power by conspiring with for-profit tour operators and biased conservationists to deprive the owners' vested rights.
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