A disputed auction of the late soul singer James Brown’s personal belongings – including his trademark capes and enormous hair curling set – has fetched more than $850,000 (£425,000) in a packed Christie’s sales room.

The auction, which went ahead against the wishes of his children and amid continuing legal wranglings over his estate, included the blue denim jumpsuit the Godfather of Soul wore in the 1974 concert before the Muhammad Ali-George Foreman “Rumble in the Jungle” world championship fight in Zaire. It fetched $25,000.

Brown, who died aged 73 from heart congestion on Christmas Day 2006, has had a characteristically eventful and controversial encore to his life, mainly because he has enough wives, ex-wives, girlfriends, children and former business managers to fill a concert hall. The auction, which raised $857,688, was no different.

Only on Monday did a judge in South Carolina, where the singer lived in a mansion, rule that the New York sale could go ahead against the wishes of some of his children. They did not want all the 317 lots put up for sale.

Times Archive, 1971: James Brown at the Albert Hall

James Brown is the pop world's equivalent of Cassius Clay

Related Links

• Funking it up for the Godfather

Multimedia

• Pictures: James Brown auction

Deanna Brown Thomas, one of his daughters, said that his children submitted a list of items that they did not want auctioned, but were ignored. “At the end of the day, everything went,” Ms Brown Thomas said. “It’s a very sad day for me and my family.”

Yet it was a happy occasion for the collectors of Brown memorabilia, and fans of the man who gave the world such hits as Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud, and I Got You (I Feel Good). A full-length embroidered cape in black satin was bought by an unidentified institution for $47,500, while a red leather furniture set sold for $40,000, 20 times its presale estimate. A blue satin cape embroidered with “Thy Name Is Godfather of Soul” went for $35,000.

A typewritten poem entitled King James Brown by Muhammad Ali, the World’s Greatest Poet, King of all Poets, on Behalf of the People of Western New Yorkthat was given to Brown by Ali fetched $25,000. His belt with a buckle proclaiming “sex machine” sold for $4,750 and his medical bracelet, stating that he was diabetic and allergic to penicillin, went for $32,500. His set of 80 hair rollers, hair picks and combs and 11 cans and bottles of hair products fetched $6,000.

A collection of ten pairs of lifted shoes sold for $15,000, while 18 pairs of his stage-ready boots sold for $8,125. Another collector was able to take home 83 pairs of Brown’s sunglasses for $8,750.

Among more personal mementoes sold in the auction were Brown’s passport, several visas and 21 cancelled cheques, all signed by Brown and dating from July 1976. The cheques fetched $1,500.

Court-appointed trustees for Brown’s estate, reported to be worth between $100 million and $200 million, filed a lawsuit in South Carolina earlier this year against two of his former business managers alleging that they had conspired to defraud the singer and claiming that the investment bank Morgan Stanley had failed to prevent the fraud.

The trustees announced in January that the personal items would be sold to pay taxes owed by his estate. The former managers tried unsuccessfully to block the sale and are also contesting the authority of the trustees to oversee the singer’s South Carolina mansion.

There are still myriad probate battles over the estate. His will named six children as heirs, but in the days after his death it became painfully clear that settling Brown’s affairs would be far from easy. Infighting among his family even prevented the body of the singer being buried for ten weeks.

The feud pitted Tomi Rae Hynie, who claims to be Brown’s widow and the mother of his youngest child, against several of the singer’s children from other women.

He was interred eventually in a temporary crypt at the home of one of his daughters. A public mausoleum is being built at his mansion.

Explore Music

• Festivals

• CD Reviews

• Live Reviews

• Classical

Editor's choice

• U2 at Nou Camp Stadium, Barcelona
• The 50 Best Movie Villains
• The 15 golden rules of theatre etiquette