TORONTO – The bids have begun to fly at a Toronto auction where 27 pieces from Hudson’s Bay’s art collection are being sold.
So many art lovers, historians and those wistful about the fall of Canada’s oldest company showed up that the Heffel Fine Art Auction House ran out of seats and some bidders had to gather at the sidelines.
Auction house head David Heffel says the items being sold today are not just an honour to auction off but a privilege to own because they embody a legacy deeply woven into the Canadian fabric.
He got the bidding underway with canvases painted in oil by W.J. Phillips, an artist who was a fixture of calendars HBC produced and distributed for free at its department stores and trading posts from.
The first of the Phillips pieces auctioned off sold for $37,500, well over the $15,000 to $25,000 value it was first assigned. The painting shows men trudging along an Alberta riverfront and tied to several boats in the water they are helping to steady.
The second, “Hudson’s Bay Company York Boats at Norway House,” sold for $130,000 which Heffel said was a record for a Phillips painting.
Later in the auction, Heffel will sell a painting of Morocco from Winston Churchill and another of Yonge and King streets in Toronto by Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2025.
