An American widow sold her husband's burial crypt directly on top of film legend Marilyn Monroe's final resting place for $4.6 million on Monday, through online auctioneer eBay Inc.

Elsie Poncher has said she was selling the crypt in a small, celebrity-heavy cemetery in Los Angeles to pay off her mortgage.

The auction opened earlier this month at $500,000 and attracted 21 bids before closing on Monday. eBay did not say who submitted the winning bid.

We are currently working with the seller and the high bidder to finalize the sale and will be happy to report more of the details once the sale has been completed, it said in a statement.

Poncher's husband, Richard Poncher, bought the crypt from baseball star Joe DiMaggio, Monroe's ex-husband, as the famous couple was divorcing in 1954.

Monroe died at age 36 in 1962. Richard Poncher died in 1986 at age 81. Elsie Poncher said her husband's body was positioned to allow him to look face down on Monroe.

She plans to move his remains over one spot to a crypt that had been intended as her own final resting place. She now will be cremated when she dies.

The Westwood Village Memorial Park cemetery, surrounded by office buildings in the suburb of Westwood, is home to such celebrities as Dean Martin, James Coburn, Roy Orbison, Truman Capote, Natalie Wood, Carl Wilson, Minnie Riperton and recent arrival Farrah Fawcett.

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