“Forever Marilyn,” the statue whose location on Museum Way has caused controversy in Palm Springs for years, will be moving early next year, the city announced Monday.
The statue will move just a short distance from Museum Way to the city’s Downtown Park by March 1, resolving a long-running lawsuit by the group Committee to Relocate Marilyn.
The city announced in late July that it planned to move the statue, but had not previously given a timeframe.
“P.S. Resorts and the Committee to Relocate Marilyn have identified a highly visible and safe location in the Downtown Park that satisfies all parties involved,” Mayor Jeffrey Bernstein said in a prepared statement.
The statue, which is owned by the downtown hotel trade group PS Resorts, has been on Museum Way in front of the Palm Springs Art Museum since mid-2021.
It’s a popular tourist attraction, drawing people who want their photos taken standing under it, but the location has also proven controversial from the beginning. Some criticized the decision to close a public street to place the statue; some object to the work itself as objectifying women; some don’t like that “Forever Marilyn” blocks the view of the museum from Palm Canyon Drive, and vice versa.
Some of those opponents filed a lawsuit in 2021 arguing the city had broken the law in the process it used to close the street. An appeals court ruled in 2023 that the case could go forward, but it will now be resolved.
The city did not say exactly how far the statue will be moving, but based on a rendering of the new location, it appears the journey will be 100 feet or less.
This is a developing story.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Palm Springs’ ‘Forever Marilyn’ statue will move by March 1
Source Agencies
