Matthew Gould organised the auction with Queenstown fine furniture maker Ed Cruikshank and said the event was a "huge success" with 200 people attending, making it standing room only and every auction item sold.
A "high-profile New Zealand couple" paid $18,000 for Cruikshank's braille-inscribed revolving black walnut and blued-steel table dubbed 1821 Canterbury, which took the furniture maker three frantic weeks to complete in time for Friday night's auction.
The second highest-selling item went to a Queenstown entrepreneur, who paid $15,000 for Pat Mulvaney's Still Life With Figs.
"It's an important New Zealand work. It's worth $30,000 to $40,000, so people got some great deals," Mr Gould said.
A curio described as a "Reserve Bank compendium of mementoes" fetched about $1000 and featured a signed copy of Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard's biography, a $5 note signed by Mr Bollard and his predecessor, Don Brash, and a copy of the 2010 Budget signed by the Reserve Bank governor and Prime Minister John Key.
"When you think about it it's a pretty good deal," Mr Gould said.
But the item that aroused the most interest was Arrowtown artist Shane Woolridge's It's Not Our Fault, which went for "well above" its reserve price of $1000.
"It's an amazing piece of schist - a split oval that evoked tectonics. It's just so clever and so powerful," Mr Gould said.
Organisers planned to hold the event annually and next year's event could well benefit Christchurch again as the city would take a "long time to rebuild", he said.
"It was a really great event - there were tears and a lot of laughter. There was no compassion fatigue in that room - everyone was out supporting Canterbury."
