This weekend, at a Sheraton Hotel in New York, the U.S. Marshals Service sold off 500 lots once owned by disgraced Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, netting more than $2 million for items that ranged from a grand piano to a trove of the financial villain's extra-large skivvies. However, since Madoff's victims are believed to have lost in the neighborhood of $65 billion as a result of his fraud, the auction's haul amounts to more of a symbolic victory that real financial relief.

The nine-and-a-half-hour auction's top lot was a 10.5-carat diamond ring believed to be the engagement ring that Madoff gave to his wife, Ruth, which sold for $550,000 — far above its presale estimate of $200,000. The buyer, according to BusinessWeek, was a man who declined to reveal his identity to reporters. "It's all going to play out shortly," he told the press, mysteriously. "I'd just as soon not talk about it."

Other notable performers on the block included Madoff's black velveteen slippers, embroidered in gold thread with his initials, which made $6,000, and the king-size bed once used by the couple, which fetched $2,250. The bed's buyer was Tally Wiener, a lawyer who helped liquidate Fairfield Sentry, a fund that fed money into Madoff's accounts before going under. "The king-size bed is bigger than my living room," Wiener said. "I don't know what came over me." Weiner said she would offer the bed to Ruth Madoff, who was never charged with wrongdoing but has been doing charitable volunteer work in an effort to redeem her name.

Clothing buyers were out en masse. One pair of shoes from the swanky Manhattan store Belgian Shoes brought $2,900, more than two times what Texas auctioneers Gaston & Sheehan expected it to earn. The underwear received special attention, with 11 pairs of designer boxer shorts selling for $1,700 to one unidentified man. The undergarments had reportedly not been used, and came with more than 200 pairs of socks.

Given that rather lowly items were being sold off for impressive sums, it was perhaps no surprise that actual luxuries had no trouble finding buyers. A Steinway & Sons grand piano made $42,000. Said John Rodger, the real-estate developer who purchased the instrument: "It's got a little bit of history to it, and it's hysterical."