LOS ANGELES, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- An eBay buyer Monday won the auction for the crypt above late Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe's resting place in a Los Angeles cemetery for a price over 4.6 million U.S. dollars.

    The crypt in the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park was placed for sale on the auction website 10 days ago for a starting price of 500,000 dollars, and the bidding ended at noon Monday local time when the final price reached 4,602,100 dollars.

    Dozen of people have vied for the crypt, but many of them later retracted their bids. Only 21 effective bids from 17 buyers were registered at eBay when the auction closed.

    The sale has caught widespread interest, although with eBay, it is never clear whether the bidders are serious about buying. Observers earlier expected the price would close at nearly 5 million dollars.

    The seller, Elsie Poncher, is a widow whose late husband bought the crypt from Joe DiMaggio during his 1954 divorce from Marilyn Monroe.

    Poncher decided to move her husband, who has been buried next to Monroe since 1986, and sell the crypt to pay off the 1.6-million-dollar mortgage on her Beverly Hills home.

    "Here is a once in a lifetime and into eternity opportunity to spend your eternal days directly above Marilyn Monroe," the seller says in the auction description.

    "I can't be more honest than that. I want to leave it free and clear for my kids," Poncher reportedly told the Los Angeles Times.

    With a price at 4.5 million dollars, the crypt in the west Los Angeles cemetery has become one of the most expensive pieces of real estate on the market.

    Perks of owning the crypt include a steady flow of visitors, many of whom leave flowers and plant bright red lipstick kisses on Monroe's name plate, and a neighborhood full of Hollywood celebrities' resting places, including those of Dean Martin, Jack Lemmon, Natalie Wood and, most recently, Farrah Fawcett.