Tomb Above Monroe's Fetches Hefty Price

A $4.6 million offer for a crypt atop Marilyn Monroe's tomb was rescinded on Monday by an eBay bidder in Japan, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The auction, which started August 14 with an opening bid of $500,000, shot up within just a few days to several million dollars, closing yesterday with a hefty $4.6 million bid. Eleven other bidders in the $4.5 million range were notified yesterday that the winning bid had been canceled and were offered the opportunity to put in a second bid for the prize.

Widow Elsie Poncher -- whose husband Richard Poncher is currently entombed in the crypt -- told the Times that she is selling the site to pay off the mortgage on her Beverly Hills home. Though she told the Times that her husband once said, "If I croak, if you don't put me upside down over Marilyn, I'll haunt you for the rest of your life," she plans to move her husband's remains to an adjacent crypt that had been intended for her; when she dies, she plans to be cremated.

The Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park cemetery is the final resting place for many Hollywood celebrities including Truman Capote, Natalie Wood, Minnie Ripperton, Merv Griffin, Eva Gabor, Peggy Lee, Farrah Fawcett, and Dean Martin, to name a few.