Marilyn Monroe's LA hideaway: historic Owlwood estate is for sale for £92 million

The 10-acre Los Angeles estate used as a bolt hole by Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe and owned down the decades by showbiz royalty including film star Tony Curtis and pop singers Sonny and Cher, is for sale for £92 million.

In western LA's Holmby Hills neighbourhood, bordered by exclusive Beverly Hills and Bel Air, the historic Owlwood estate is made up of two guesthouses and a nine-bedroom Italian Renaissance-style home built in the Thirties.

Monroe is believed to have visited the property regularly while her friend, rumoured lover and 20th Century Fox chairman Joseph Schenck lived there in the Fifties.

Schenck, the first president of entertainment studio United Artists, was one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. "He furnished it in a manner described as spare," writes Michael Gross, author of the book Unreal Estate, which explores fame and wealth in LA through the residents of its great mansions, "perhaps because he considered the stars, starlets and Hollywood players he filled the place with sufficient decoration."

The estate passed through the hands of oil tycoon William Keck before it was bought by Curtis, who starred with Monroe in Some Like It Hot. Gross says Curtis remembered the estate as he'd dated Monroe “when she was bunking in [the] guesthouse".

In the Sixties, Sonny Bono and then-wife Cher went to a birthday party thrown by Curtis at the estate and fell in love with the place. Curtis sold to them a few years later and Cher redesigned the property from top to bottom. It featured in Architectural Digest in May/June 1974.

Rap mogul Jay-Z hosted his annual Roc Nation pre-Grammy's brunch at Owlwood two years ago - so everyone on his star-studded guest list will be familiar with the wood panelling, period detail, soaring ceilings and magnificent formal rooms of the three-storey main house.

Its sumptuous living space covers 12,000sq ft, including an oval sun room, a library and an opulent master suite on the second floor, reached via a grand, sweeping staircase.

Crystal chandeliers and 24-carat gold fixtures feature throughout, and naturally, the estate boasts an outdoor tennis court and a swimming pool with pool house.

Owlwood was listed for sale in 2017 for £136 million, along with designs for redevelopment and renders of what a modern upgrade could do for the estate.

Now, with a revised price tag of £92 million it only just falls short of Petra Ecclestone's recent record-breaking house sale, also in Holmby Hills.

The London-based Formula One heiress parted ways with her 14-bedroom estate - complete with bowling alley, barbershop and wine and cheese tasting zone - for £95 million, making it the most expensive house sold in LA county.