But these Barbras – the ones in the desert – are part of Louis Papalas’ personal collection.

Lou spent the last 60 years buying a myriad of items related to the iconic performer. But when Lou died earlier this year, his youngest daughter, Mara, inherited what’s known to be the world’s largest collection of Streisand memorabilia.

Though Mara recently catalogued more than 12,000 items, the estimated size of the collection has ranged from 50,000 to 100,000 items over the years.

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As someone who isn’t a Streisand fanatic, Mara doesn’t have any interest in keeping the collection for herself. Nine months after Lou’s death, she has nearly everything sorted and labelled.

As she rolls up the metal doors of each of the six storage units that house the collection, she rattles off the contents inside.

While some items are labelled – like a “guaranteed authentic” coral-painted thumbnail-sized chunk of Streisand’s home that was removed following an earthquake on January 17, 1994 – many things had to be identified by Mara and her father’s friends.

“This is sheet music; these are just clippings; rolled posters here; magazines; posters; road shows; these are framed album covers he exhibited,” she says, pointing out different sections.

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“Magazines; more records; books; memorabilia; programmes; CDs; VHS; stacking dolls. There’s a jack in the box with a Barbra inside; a Fabergé-style egg.”

While Mara put a few items up for auction at Beverly Hills-based auction house Julien’s – including the dress Streisand wore in her 1965 TV special, My Name Is Barbra – she’s hoping that she won’t have to sell everything individually.

“I just don’t have any interest in getting on eBay,” she says. “I want somebody to buy this whole collection and then do something with it.”

Lou’s dream was to create a non-profit Barbra Streisand museum and performing arts centre, but it’s not hard to think of the many things an eclectic millionaire could do with a collection of this size.

Mara hopes that a super fan will buy the whole lot to create anything from a Streisand museum to a bed and breakfast with movie-themed rooms.

“I feel like I’m sitting on a little avant-garde niche type of thing, someone could do something really grand with this, and I would love it and [my dad] would love it,” she says. “But I don’t think that somebody’s me, because I don’t have the love of it. I have the love of him.”

It’s hard to assign a price to Lou’s collection. Donating the whole thing to a non-profit organisation is always an option, but Mara and her family hope to recoup some of the costs that went into collecting and housing all of these items.

“I’ve done an enormous amount of work for this whole year. There’s an enormous amount spent on storage over the years; there’s an enormous amount spent on the purchases,” Mara says.

“People have told me I need to appraise it,” Mara says. “But appraisers want like, US$80 to US$300 an hour. And [with] the amount of hours they would need to do this, I can’t afford an appraisal.”

The list of items that she’ll keep for herself is short and sentimental: two signed albums – one with a note to her father – and a caricature of Lou sandwiched between Streisand and Omar Sharif in Funny Girl.

Perhaps a few things will go to family members and Lou’s friends who also love Streisand.

Although it will be a relief to shed the cost and effort of maintaining his six storage units, she knows that it’ll also mark the start of a new phase of grief.

“I am going to feel very weird about [the collection] when I no longer have it. This is his playground. This was his joy – he loved to be down here,” Mara says.

“I have to always look at this as a blessing, no matter what,” she adds. “It’s given me a good distraction; it’s given me a chance to try to make him proud.”