An Irish man was involved in the sale of Marilyn Monroe’s iconic dress

The dress fetched over $4 million at auction.

Days on from the Met Gala, Kim Kardashian stepping out on the red carpet in a dress originally worn by Marilyn Monroe remains a talking point. While the fashion moment divided fans, there's no denying that there was a huge number of people involved in overseeing the operation, including a man from Roscommon. Athlone man Martin Nolan, as the Irish Examiner reports, played an important role in the dress' more recent history. As the executive director and financial manager of Julien's Auctions, Mr Nolan oversaw the sale of Marilyn Monroe's dress in 2016. The sale took place over three days, in an event titled MARILYN. The dress, which the Hollywood star famously wore as she serenaded John F. Kennedy on his birthday, entered the record books as it fetched over $4.8 million, the equivalent of €4.6 million, making it the most expensive dress to ever be sold at auction. Other items sold during the 2016 MARILYN auction included items belonging to her acting coach Lee Strasberg and Lord David Gainsborough-Roberts. At the auction, the gown was sold to Ripley's Believe it Or Not!, and the museum kept it in a temperature-controlled environment until it was borrowed by Kim Kardashian this week. Previously, the dress had been on display in the Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge, Co. Kildare. In an interview with Vogue at the Met Gala, Kim said that she chose to wear the dress as it was the "most American thing you can think of", and she wanted to comply with the theme of the ball, which was Gilded Glamor. However, Kim also attracted backlash after revealing that she lost a drastic amount of weight in a very short time. The star detailed her restrictive diet and exercise regime on the red carpet, which was labelled as "irresponsible" by many eating disorder organisations.