Palm Springs mayor discusses city’s decision to relocate ‘Forever Marilyn’

Palm Springs residents and visitors have strong opinions on the upcoming move of the "Forever Marilyn" statue.

On Thursday, the Palm Springs City Council decided to relocate the statue from its perch in front of the Palm Springs Art Museum to an undetermined city park.

Councilmembers hope this will settle a long-running lawsuit by the "Committee to Relocate Marilyn," a group that opposed the statue's current location on Museum Way.

The exact location of where the statue will go in the park has not been determined but the move will happen in the next 30 days.

"This location here is prestige. Hopefully, the location they move it to down the road is similar to this one," said Horacio Munoz, a San Diego resident.

"If they are to move her away, that chance of spotting her will certainly be diminished," said Zak Ricards, a Santa Monica resident.

Since its installation, the 26-foot-tall statue has been a lightning rod of controversy, costing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

Palm Springs Mayor Jeffrey Bernstein hopes the move will be the end of all that.

Certainly, the people who wanted the Museum view will be happy, although I think so many people loved Marilyn who are quite upset right now, that they're going to want to see a nice location," Bernstein told News Channel 3's Peter Daut. "I think in the end nobody wants to keep paying lawyers. And I think that really what was happening."

We also reached out today to the head of the Committee to Relocate Marilyn, Trina Turk, who says there are "many details that need to be resolved before they consider this a done deal." Turk added that they "will wait to comment until they have a signed agreement."