Whitney Houston auction rakes in $525,000 from personal items
Air Jordan sneakers, Dolce & Gabbana fur coat, wedding dress among items that sold for highest amounts
More than 100 personal items that once belonged to Whitney Houston have sold for a combined $525,000 US.
An online and live auction Friday and Saturday in Beverly Hills, Calif. included Houston's wedding dress worn during her 1992 nuptials with Bobby Brown, a 1985 passport used during her first international tours and a number of awards.
The highest-selling item was a pair of Nike Air Jordan sneakers personally gifted to Houston by basketball great Michael Jordan in 1990. The black court shoes, with Jordan's number 23 on the side, sold for $20,000.
A Dolce & Gabbana multi-coloured fur coat Houston once wore on stage went for $16,250. Her wedding gown brought in $15,000 and her passport sold for $11,250.
"The results are extremely satisfying, despite the fact we were barred from selling her Emmy," said auction house president Greg Rohan.
The Television Academy filed a legal complaint earlier this week to block the sale of Houston's Emmy, which was initially also up for grabs. A judge granted a restraining order after the organization argued the statuette isn't allowed to be sold and must be returned if the winner's heirs don't want to keep it.
The Emmy, which Houston won in 1986 for her Grammy performance of Saving All My Love For You, went back to her family, which put all of the items up for sale.
"They gave us a selection through the years, so nothing was concentrated in one area. It's kind of a story," said consignment director Garry Shrum.
Houston was found dead in a hotel room in February of 2012, the night before the Grammy Awards, after accidentally drowning in the bathtub following cocaine use. She was 48.