Marilyn Monroe dress and royal cakes up for auction

Fans of Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana, Star Trek, Marlon Brando and royal weddings will have the chance to get their hands on classic pieces of Hollywood history this month.

Julien's Auctions House in California will host its annual Hollywood Auction at the end of June, and highlights include a dress worn by Marilyn Monroe during the making of her last film, as well as pieces of cake from royal weddings.

"So the Marilyn Monroe dress is really our marquee piece, it's on the cover of our catalogue, it's estimated $300,000-500,000 (£190,000-£317,000, €269,000-€448,000)," said Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien's Auctions, about the floral silk crepe dress worn by the screen legend during the film of Something's Got To Give, a film that she started in 1962 but was never completed due to her death.

"It's significant in the sense that it's the last dress that Marilyn Monroe wore in her last movie, her last career-worn dress. The image of Marilyn wearing that dress was used by all of the national newspapers when they announced the tragic and untimely passing of Marilyn Monroe in August of 1962. It's a beautiful, hugging, silk, crepe gown with a floral pattern. Really, it could be worn today, it's a true classic and highly sought after," he said.

Another set of items that's likely to be popular involves British royals, including a Versace dress worn by Princess Diana and various pieces of cake from royal weddings.

"People have a great love affair with the monarchy, they love tradition and they love all the ceremony around it. Diana was a great ambassador for the royal family and continues to be today. This dress is Atelier Versace. A Gianni Versace-designed gown for Princess Diana, believed to be the first Versace gown that she wore," said Nolan, of the metallic Versace dress worn by the late Princess of Wales, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997. The Versace gown is expected to fetch between $60,000 and $80,000.

Also up for sale are pieces of cake from the weddings of Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, both of Prince Charles' weddings, and Prince William and The Duchess of Cambridge.

"You know, this is really interesting and I call it a royal flush of wedding cakes because we have wedding cakes from Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, Prince Charles when he married Diana and Prince Charles when he married Camilla Parker-Bowles and also a piece of wedding cake from William and Kate," says Nolan. "So, really, when you think of the wedding, the cake is sort of part of the whole pomp and ceremony and people like to keep this as a memento of the wedding and that happy occasion," he said. "Obviously they're past their sell-by date by now. They're not for consumption but they're still sort of a happy memory and if you weren't at the royal wedding, next best thing is to have a piece of the wedding cake."

Other items include several tunics worn by cast members of Star Trek , including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley (estimates vary from $15,000 -$70,000), and a 1969 Harley-Davidson motorcycle once owned by actor Marlon Brando. That will likely fetch between $200,000 and $400,000.

The Hollywood Legends auction will take place at Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills on 26-27June.