Mel's Sword Tops Sale

By Stephen M. Silverman

05/05/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

A 54-inch sword wielded by Mel Gibson in the Oscar-winning epic film "Braveheart" received a winning bid of $170,000 on Tuesday at a New York charity auction organized by actor Liam Neeson. Sales benefited a UNICEF project called "Movie Action for Children," which helps provide drugs to prevent mother-to-fetus transmissions of AIDS in African countries. Neeson is involved in the project with his wife, actress Natasha Richardson, 37. For the auction, "I wanted items a bit more personal and ones that have sentimental value," Neeson, 48, told PEOPLE. "The response from the studios, producers, directors, actors and actresses has been quite extraordinary." The booty included a bullwhip donated by Steven Spielberg and used by Harrison Ford in all three Indiana Jones movies ($74,000), Julia Roberts's "Runaway Bride" wedding dress ($16,000) and a light saber from "The Phantom Menace" ($54,000) -- used by Neeson, as the character Qui-Gon Jinn, in the film. So far, the two-day auction has raised $406,850, which included what was paid for Lauren Bacall's signed copy of her autobiography. As the veteran star, 76, told PEOPLE: "Anything that offers help to see the light at the end of the AIDS tunnel, so that we can hopefully help to eradicate it, is a good thing."