AKIPRESS.COM - The dress worn by Marilyn Monroe as she sang "Happy Birthday Mr President" to John F Kennedy has been sold at auction for $4.8 million.

The figure-hugging Jean Louis gown, with 2,500 crystals, was bought by the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum chain, exceeding the $3m guide price, BBC reports.

The company's vice president said it was "most iconic piece of pop culture that there is".

Monroe died from a drug overdose just three months after the performance.

The sultry rendition for President Kennedy's 45th birthday at a 1962 Democratic fundraiser at New York's Madison Square was one of her last public appearances.

President Kennedy was shot dead a year later.

The dress, which the auction house said was so tight she had to be sewn into it, had previously been bought at auction for $1.3m in 1999 by the late business mogul and collector Martin Zweig.