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Bernie Madoff's wife's engagement ring has been sold at auction for $550,000 (£344,000) to a mystery buyer.

The anonymous individual, who attended the public bidding for the former financier's possessions, went home with the 10.5-carat jewel that Madoff had presented to his partner when he proposed.

Other items in the Sheraton New York Hotel event's portfolio included a Steinway and Sons grand piano – which exchanged hands for $42,000 – a valuable watch that went for $67,500 and a pair of embroidered velveteen slippers.

Personal belongings that went under the hammer also included items of clothing, shoes, jewellery and soft furnishings.

Disgraced tycoon Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison in June this year after being found guilty of orchestrating a Ponzi scam that swindled wealthy investors out of billions of dollars.

The public auction was held in New York last weekend and was the second open bidding war of the fraudster's personal effects this year.

Family of the late Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man ever to scale Mount Everest, are at loggerheads over the sale of his watches.

The timepieces, which are currently being held by a Swiss auction house, were put up for sale by the mountaineer's second wife, Lady June Hillary.

However, his 56-year-old son Peter has opposed his stepmother's decision, claiming the watches are the rightful property of the family.

Mr Hillary, along with his sister Sarah, has voiced his distress at Lady Hillary's donation of sentimental items, including valuable Buddhist prayer books, to the Otago Museum on New Zealand's South Island, artefacts which they say belong to the family and not just their dead father's wife.

The Daily Mail quoted the explorer's son as saying: "Putting the watches up for sale was the straw that broke the camel's back."

Last week, it was announced that former financier Bernard Madoff's watches would be going under the hammer in a public auction of his possessions in New York.

Other items in the catalogue include a Steinway piano and embroidered slippers.