This x-ray would not normally attract much attention but for the subject: Marilyn Monroe. This week, three x-rays of Monroe’s chest and pelvis were sold in auction for $45,000.
The auction took place at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. The x-rays were made in 1954 at the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital.
I will not attempt to tie this story into any legal or policy issue beyond noting that, even in an economic downturn, there are people who clearly have money to burn.
Source: MSNBC
Useful info. Fortunate me I discovered your web site by chance, and I’m shocked why this accident did not came about in advance! I bookmarked it.
And to think some people suspect my revelations of our lab coat lunatic phenomenon is an exaggeration.
Trust me: You don’t know the half of it . . . .
Medical Maniacs website for the eye-popping truth.
Who is the “owner” selling these films?
Why should anyone be able to see her private medical records to anyone? Is her colonoscopy or medical chart also for sale to the highest bidder? What legitimate auction house would handle such sales, and maybe they should have pickled her private parts and sold them too?
or better yet….WYSIWYG!
the hospital record is written on the front of the x-ray…how does one decide what is and isn’t a waste of money?
In this instance, as art it brings the individuals understanding of the source of meaning of a concrete ‘image’ closer to the reality of the duality inherent in the observed as boundary of interpretation of substance of a real person. That x-ray will mean a million diff things to a million diff people.
oh you know…..’Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder’ and all that….
Man, Look at that set of Lungs!
I don’t know if I should be amused at this silly waste of money or appalled by the total lack of common decency.
I wonder how hard it would be to come up with x-rays from other celebs? Given that there is not real way to tell who this x-ray is of I am pretty sure I have a chest x-ray from Abraham Lincoln out in my supply room.
On second thought….if medical records can’t be protected during life, why expect it after death…there is an ick factor to the loss of privacy…
“The films render her vulnerable, again, to more inspection. The loss of privacy is irrevocable, a violation after death.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elaine-schattner/marilyn-monroe-x-rays-auc_b_625014.html
Memento Mori…this would be welcome in any art collection.
‘Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’
…she was lovely!
mespo,
You sly devil you. Did you hear that Audrey Hepburn’s dress sold for 56K?
I suspect there were a lot of guys paying more than that in 1954 dollars to get a look at that chest.