Oprah Winfrey Raises $600K for Charity With Yard Sale

Some items which are auctioned off by Oprah at her yard sale include a set of six 18th century Louis XVI armchairs with hand-embroidered details and a TV Guide cover photo.

Oprah Winfrey raised more than $600,000 for charity by auctioning off hundreds of her personal items, Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday, November 3. The auction took place on Saturday at the Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club. It was carried out by Kaminski Auctions.

A set of six 18th-century Louis XVI armchairs with hand-embroidered details was auctioned off at $60,000. Other items which were sold at the event include a 16-by-20-inch print of a TV Guide cover photo of the media mogul, a pair of simple crystal lamp bases, a dog portrait and a tea pot. Each of the items went to buyers at $3,000, $2,500, $1,400 and $1,000 respectively.

The items came from Oprah's Montecito mansion as well as homes in Hawaii, Illinois and Indiana. Money raised from the sale goes to Winfrey's Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.

"It's just too much stuff. I talk about it a lot in ['O'] magazine. We talk about decluttering. And I realised, I need to declutter my own life. It is very freeing. I am downsizing," Oprah said prior to the event. "I'm trying not to be attached to things. I'm trying to live the life that I talk about, like not letting things define you. But it's hard."