Washington, Aug 19 (DPA) The legendary draw of one of America's biggest and most tragic celebrities, the late Marilyn Monroe, has grown larger.

Bidding reached $4.5 million on eBay Tuesday for a crypt above the final resting place of the sex idol at the Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Monroe died in 1962 at age 36 of a probable overdose of barbiturates, still in her prime of beauty but suffering personal problems and loneliness. Elton John memorialised her in his song 'Candle in the Wind': 'Hollywood created a superstar, And pain was the price you paid, Even when you died, Oh the press still hounded you.'

The hounding continued this week with macabre headlines like 'Get Atop Marilyn Monroe, In a Crypt' and 'Sleep with Marilyn Monroe Forever'.

The seller, a Los Angeles widow, clearly knew what she was doing when she put her late husband's tomb up for sale on the internet auction site eBay.

'Here is a once in a lifetime and into eternity opportunity to spend your eternal days directly above Marilyn Monroe,' Elsie Poncher's eBay ad states. 'In fact the person occupying the address right now is looking face down on her.'

Poncher told the Los Angeles Times that she wants the money to pay off the $1.6-million mortgage on her Beverly Hills Home so she can leave the property 'free and clear for my kids'.

What better way than to move the remains of her late husband, Richard Poncher, to a different location - her own nearby burial crypt - and sell the hot property? The starting bid was $500,000.

Poncher said her husband bought the crypt from Joe DiMaggio, the baseball player who had a short-lived marriage with Monroe in 1954.