A mixed offering of Whitney Houston's concert gear and other ephemera — including instruments and damaged records — went on the block in New Jersey on Tuesday.

Speed of Sound, a company that has been storing a warehouse full of gear from Houston's 1999 world tour, held the auction in an attempt to recoup unpaid storage fees.

People leave a Irvington, N.J., warehouse, where costumes and concert gear from Whitney Houston's 1999 tour were auctioned off on Tuesday.
(Mel Evans/Associated Press)

A spokesperson said last week that the Grammy Award-winning Houston and her company, Nippy Inc., had fallen between $175,000 and $200,000 US behind on storage payments.

At the A.J. Willner Auctions sale on Tuesday, some of the highest bids were for several grand pianos.

A hush fell over the crowd when urgent bidding ran a Yamaha grand piano up to $12,000 US. Another — a dramatic clear acrylic grand by Schimmel — sold for $20,000 US.

An antiques dealer from Mississippi, who declined to give his name, bought the Schimmel piano with cash he carried in a plastic bag. The dealer said the piano was a bargain, estimating that a new model would cost $121,000 US.

Another notable sale was the $400 US paid for the lot of 16 music awards given to singer Bobby Brown, from whom Houston is seeking a divorce after more than a dozen tempestuous years of marriage.

Other items for sale included instruments such as keyboards and synthesizers, concert equipment such as microphones and speakers, a slew of designer outfits Houston wore onstage, waterlogged vinyl records and a crumpled poster of young New Jersey baseball players bearing the name the "Whitney Houston Little League Team."

Speed of Sound has said that any money beyond the cost of the storage fees that is earned from the auction will be forwarded to Nippy Inc.

With files from the Associated Press.