Held on 17 February, the Charity Auction aimed at raising missing funds to finance the redevelopment of the Photographers' Gallery's London space, which is expected to reopen at the end of the year.

The auction, which took place at Christie's South Kensington, saw 70 lots come under the hammer and included work from artists and photographers such as Helmut Newton, Rineke Dijkstra, Bill Brandt, Mario Testino and Sebastião Salgado.

"Estimates on the works ranged from £600 to £10,000 and were substantially exceeded," says the Gallery. "The winner of the Gallery's 1999 Citibank Photography Prize, Rineke Dijkstra's lot more than doubled its high estimate of £10,000 realising £21,000. Late British photographer Bill Brandt's work has been exhibited at the Gallery repeatedly throughout its history. His lot reached £8800, almost triple its £3,000 high estimate. Maurizio Anzeri exhibited in 2007's The Photographic Object and was a hit at last year's Paris Photo for the Gallery's Print Sales. His lot started a bidding war, with the final bid raising almost £9500, well over the original high estimate of £2500."

In a statement, Brett Rogers, director of The Photographers' Gallery, says: "We are thrilled by the results from last week's Charity Auction and delighted that we have been able to raise such a significant amount of money towards the final funds needed for our new building. The generosity of all involved has shown the incredible support The Photographers' Gallery has attracted in realising its vision of a new state-of-the-art photography gallery in London."

However, the gallery still has more than £500,000 to raise to finance the work, according to a spokeswoman.

The gallery has undergone extensive renovation over the past four months, and expects the work to continue throughout 2011. The new space is due to open before the end of the year, and will include three extra stories, in addition to the current three, allowing the gallery to house three dedicated exhibitions floors, and education area, a street-level café and an improved bookshop.

The final design is a scaled-back version of the gallery's original plans. When it first talked about moving out of Great Newport Street, its location since Sue Davies founded the organisation in 1971, the plan was to build a new six-storey premises on Ramillies Street with "ceilings as high as 10m in the gallery." This plan was scheduled to cost around £15m, but by 2009, the gallery was still £7m short and forced to find a cheaper alternative.

For more information about The Photographers' Gallery, visit www.photonet.org.uk.