As close as possible to Marilyn Monroe

'Happy Birthday Marilyn' is the name of the new exhibition at the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. As soon as you enter, the saint worship begins, with a metre-high image of Marilyn Monroe in the famous billowing dress. High up in the ridge of the side aisle. The tone is set: The New Church provides a stage to worship the icon of the 1950s, an eternally beautiful heroine. With items that were once in the film star's home and have never been seen in Europe. Right down to her curlers.

Frozen

There is little to imagine with a 90-year-old Marilyn Monroe. Norma Jeane Baker (as the film star was actually called) lived to be only 36 (1926-1962) and therefore her beauty remained eternal. Frozen and captured in the thousands of photographs and films. Wrinkles, grey hair, signs of age - she was spared it all. Had she not died under puzzling circumstances (possibly from an overdose of sleeping pills), I am sure she would not have become such an icon and such a myth.

Fantasy

In the 1950s, she was wildly popular and hugely admired for her looks. She played bigger and smaller roles in 31 films, was married three times and the sex symbol of her time. She herself saw it differently: 'I think I'm a fantasy.' From that remark alone, it is clear that she was much more intelligent than many people thought.

The New Church has displayed Marilyn Monroe's public life, which the camera recorded so endlessly, against her private life. In small alcoves in the church, you step into her own world and can marvel at things that were once in her home. For forty years, all these items were stored in New York until the heir (the daughter of Monroe's acting coach Lee Strasberg) decided to put the film star's estate up for auction.

Guest curator and curator of the exhibition is Ted Stampfer (1971). He is one of those who managed to buy a substantial part of the items. He owns about a thousand objects, of which over 250 are now on display. From film scripts to jars of cream, from props to Christian Dior tights. From garments and vases to the countless letters she received from fans. And as a highlight, the white billowing dress from 'Seven years itch' can also be admired, incidentally not owned by Stampfer. Or is it a (spare) copy of the real one after all?

Looks and charisma

Stampfer became fascinated by Marilyn Monroe when he was 10, after seeing some films featuring her. He started reading about her, became even more impressed by her looks and charisma and started collecting things from the Hollywood studios at an early age. When the boxes of Marilyn Monroe were opened and came under the hammer at Christie's in 1999, he was at the forefront. He became interested in the woman behind the Hollywood icon. In who she really was.

He discovered - precisely because he also owned many papers - that she was also a talented and well-organised businesswoman, in a male-dominated world. One of the first Hollywood actresses, she had her own production company, releasing films. And the silent witnesses to this, too, are now in the church: her diary, her address book (including the phone number of admirer Frank Sinatra), her will, her contracts.

Intimate

You cannot get closer to Marilyn Monroe, could be the exhibition's slogan. Indeed, what we get to see of the heroine, who has been dead for 54 years, is very intimate. She keeps looking at you so exquisitely beautiful and intense from all sides, with those lidded eyes and opened lips. Countless photographs and film footage of this ultimate beauty, who exudes a magic you can't put your finger on. You can never get enough of her. But however intimate, who she really was will always remain a mystery. Even though it seems she felt lonely and insecure and she struggled with sleep problems.

No matter how many private things are lying around, those perfume bottles, mohair jumpers and curlers do not ultimately tell what was going on in her beautiful head either. The sentence that is perhaps most touching and poignant is that of actress Tjitske Reidinga on the audio tour in which some Dutch admirers speak: 'She was so incredibly beautiful. But yes, what did she have to do with it herself?''