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Oprah's Harpo Studios Chairs For Sale: You Buy A Chair And You Buy A Chair

By Stephanie Lulay | May 5, 2016 11:16am
 More than 200 audience chairs used on the
More than 200 audience chairs used on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" set will be auctioned off for a good cause Tuesday.
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Getty Images; Screenbid.com

WEST LOOP — Oprah Winfrey's fans did a lot of jumping out of their seats when she surprised them with lavish gifts likes new cars and trips to Australia over the years. Some gifts were even hidden under the plush seats.

Now, here's your chance to own a seat, straight from Harpo Studios. 

More than 200 audience chairs used on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" will be auctioned off for a good cause. The Oprah Chair-ity Auction bidding begins at 2 p.m. Thursday online. 

Each chair's minimum bid is $25, according to the website. The auction includes 213 single chairs, five double chairs and one triple chair set. Each set's base is affixed with a certification of authenticity plaque. 

A 20-inch single audience chair weighs about 66 pounds, according to the website. 

Net proceeds from the charity auction will benefit the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation, which supports the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy For Girls in South Africa graduates as they continue their education. In October, the academy will celebrate its sixth graduating class. 

Winfrey established the school in 2007 to provide education for academically gifted girls from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

Harpo History 

Harpo Studios announced in March 2015 that Winfrey would not renew the lease on the lot, meaning the longtime home of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and many other TV shows would leave the site.

Harpo's move from Chicago to a new state-of-the-art studio in West Hollywood came after the OWN Network moved to a new location on The Lot in California.

Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Studios in the West Loop closed for good in December.

Harpo Studios signs were removed from the building in January. 

Oprah's — and Harpo's — move from Chicago began when Winfrey filmed her last episodes of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in 2011. The set subsequently housed "The Rosie Show," hosted by Rosie O'Donnell, for less than a year.

In March 2014, Winfrey announced she had sold Harpo Studios to West Loop-based developer Sterling Bay for $32 million.

While developer Sterling Bay has declined to answer questions about the site's redevelopment, renderings leaked in June 2015 show the largest studio building on the campus would be demolished.

Before it became home to Winfrey's studio in 1988, the largest building on the Harpo campus was formerly a cold storage warehouse, temporary morgue, armory and roller skating rink, according to the Chicago Architecture Foundation.

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