NEW YORK (Bloomberg) - Turns out people want to walk in Bernie Madoff's shoes.

Footwear to furniture to underwear, almost 500 lots of it seized from two of the fraudster's homes, drew feverish bidding at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Saturday. The auction lasted more than nine hours and grossed more than $2 million, according to the US Marshals Service, which oversaw it. The dearest item was a 10.5-carat diamond ring which sold for $550,000, beating its high presale estimate by $200,000.

Competing were collectors seeking mementos from the $65 billion Ponzi scheme, dealers and others who were as mysterious as Madoff himself before he was arrested in December 2008.

"It's all going to play out shortly," said a man with a tweed jacket and salt-and-pepper hair who declined to identify himself, after he bought the diamond. "I'd just as soon not talk about it."

More than 200 pairs of Madoff's shoes were for sale.

One lot of 18 pairs, of new size nine "Mr. Casual" shoes from the Eastside store Belgian Shoes, fetched $2,900, more than double the high presale estimate.

Another man who declined to identify himself had his eye on a pair of black velveteen slippers, with the initials BLM embroidered in gold thread. Sold! $6,000.

Empty photo albums and picture frames went for $1,000. A leather footstool depicting a bull went for $3,300, almost 10 times its presale high estimate of $360.

"The word that comes to mind is silly," said James Flaig, 57, a legal secretary who deposited the required $500 to register for the sale and didn't bid. "If Jesus Christ had owned it, I still wouldn't pay these prices."

Alan Richardson, a Miami jewellery and collectibles dealer, spent about $400,000 for jewellery and luxury watches. He said prices were lower than at a smaller Madoff sale a year ago, also at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers. Proceeds from both were to go to a fund to benefit those who lost money in Madoff's scheme.

"Prices are high for junk," Mr. Richardson said. "The really good stuff wasn't expensive at all."

Mr. Richardson said the Madoff provenance does not command much of a premium in the secondary market.

"It's like owning Hitler's stuff," he said. "He wasn't a good guy."

The emerald-cut stone was estimated to sell for as much as $350,000. The staccato-tongued auctioneer Bob Sheehan, of closely held Gaston & Sheehan, said the ring "supposedly" was Ruth's engagement ring.

Madoff's Steinway & Sons grand piano went for $42,000.

"It's got a little bit of history to it, and it's hysterical," real estate developer John Rodger of East Islip on Long Island told a scrum of a couple dozen reporters after placing the winning bid. "It makes it a conversation piece."

All items were sold without commissions.

As of September 30, approximately $1.5 billion has been recovered for Madoff's investors, the trustee overseeing Madoff's bankruptcy, Irving Picard, said in a report.

At the time of his arrest, Madoff's account statements reflected 4,900 accounts with $65 billion in nonexistent investments, according to Mr. Picard. Investors lost about $20 billion in principal.