- On Monday, Kim Kardashian was accused of damaging Marilyn Monroe's dress at the Met Gala.
- Ripley's Believe It or Not! released a statement about the claims on Thursday.
- The company said Kardashian didn't damage the "Happy Birthday" dress at all when she wore it.
Ripley's Believe It or Not! said Kim Kardashian did not damage Marilyn Monroe's "Happy Birthday" dress in a new statement.
Kardashian borrowed the dress from the museum for the 2022 Met Gala.
The Jean Louis gown was designed specifically for Monroe to wear while singing "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy in 1962. Thousands of crystals are embroidered into the sheer dress.
Ripley's purchased the gown for $4.81 million in 2016, according to a press release.
On Monday, the Instagram account for the Marilyn Monroe Collection, run by Scott Fortner, posted photos of the dress at Ripley's Believe It or Not! Hollywood in which it appeared to be damaged after Kardashian wore it.
Specifically, the photos, which were taken on June 12, showed that multiple crystals were missing from the back of the dress. The clasps seemed to be stretching the fabric as well. Diet Prada posted additional photos of the dress on Tuesday that showed a shoulder strap of the dress fraying to the point of almost ripping in two.
But on Thursday, representatives for Ripley's and Kardashian sent Insider a joint statement asserting Kardashian's Met Gala appearance did not cause the damage to the dress.
The statement noted that a 2017 report on the dress listed worn seams and "puckering" at the back of the dress, documenting that the dress was not in perfect condition at the time.
The statement specifically said that Kardashian "did not, in any way, damage the garment in the short amount of time it was worn at the Met Gala." Kardashian only wore the dress on the Met Gala red carpet and changed into a replica immediately following her arrival.
"From the bottom of the Met steps, where Kim got into the dress, to the top where it was returned, the dress was in the same condition it started in," Amanda Joiner, Ripley's vice president of publishing and licensing who oversaw Kardashian wearing the dress on the day of the gala, said in the statement.
In addition, a behind-the-scenes video of Kardashian's fitting for the dress shared by Ripley's on May 2 and resurfaced on TikTok shows that the dress was already damaged before Kardashian wore it.
The video has multiple shots of the famous dress, one of which is a lingering shot of the back.
The shot shows multiple crystals missing from the gown in the same area they were missing from in the images shared by Fortner. However, more crystals appear to have fallen off in the photos posted by Fortner.
Ripley's also said in its statement that it "understands the risks" of showing the dress in its displays, seeming to indicate additional damage could have been done to the dress between Ripley's acquisition of the dress in 2016 and its current display of the dress at Ripley's Believe It or Not! Hollywood.
The statement also debunked claims that Kardashian paid Ripley's to wear the dress, saying she instead donated to charities on behalf of Ripley's in Orlando, Florida.
Ripley's said it would continue to display the dress at its Hollywood location through the fall.