Cher Cleans Neo-Goth House

Come October, the highest bidder can sleep in Cher's bed.

It's one of 700 items from the superstar's Malibu home to be auctioned off in Beverly Hills.

Cher plans to part with hundreds of her personal possessions - including furniture, artwork, jewelry, a 2003 H2 Hummer and original costumes by designer Bob Mackie - so that she can redecorate her home.

2 "I'm truly excited about it, having had this stuff for so many years," Cher told The Associated Press. "I'm only keeping about five items from everything I have."

A "nice percentage" of the auction's proceeds will benefit the Cher Charitable Foundation, she said. The sale is expected to bring in more than $1 million, according to Lee Dunbar of Sotheby's, one of two firms administering the auction.

Cher said she was inspired to redecorate following her three-year "Farewell" tour. "When I got off the road, something happened and I said, `You know, I think it's time to do something different,"' she said. "But my house is so full that there's no way to do something different unless I totally change it."

3The Oscar and Grammy winner has collected neo-Gothic art and furniture for more than 25 years. Among the items offered in the auction is a Gothic revival brass bed, circa 1865, an oak reading table, a pair of painted brass chandeliers that hung in Cher's dining room and a terra-cotta figurine of Jesus Christ from the 16th century.

She plans to redo her home in a mix of styles inspired by Morocco and Tibet. "It sounds crazy, but I'm going to try to mix a whole bunch of cultures together," she said.

About 200 pieces from Cher's extensive wardrobe and costume collection will be sold in the auction, including outfits featured on the "Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour" and an original Mackie-designed gown she wore to the Academy Awards.

"The amount of costumes I have is staggering, so this doesn't even make a dent," said the 60-year-old star.

She will also part with 85 pieces of jewelry, including beaded items she made herself.

4Cher will relate personal stories of how she found each of the items for the auction's catalog. Stories make the pieces into "living entities," she said.

Highlights from the auction, including furniture, paintings and Mackie-made gowns, will travel to Sotheby's locations in London, Chicago and New York before the full exhibition opens at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sept. 29. Bidding begins Oct. 3. A preview exhibition is on view now at the Beverly Hilton.

Most of the items to be sold are still in Cher's house. She said she looks wistfully at them, knowing they'll be gone soon.

"I have loved everything I ever bought," she said. "I have loved them and kept them for all these years and now it's time for them to go on."