The public is getting a look at several pieces of art formerly owned by the Hudson Bay Company that will go up for auction next week. Janice Golding has more.

Demand for the items is so “tremendous” that “bidding early and fast to avoid disappointment” is recommended, said a bow-tie-adorned Heffel from the podium.

The bidding kicked off with not a single seat in the room empty and dozens more milling about the sidelines, including one man who carried a dachshund that appeared completely unfazed by the frenzy. Many were watching the action online.

A row of 14 auction house staff stood around the perimeter of the room frantically fielding telephones bids, while a giant screen behind Heffel displayed offers flooding in online. Bidders and proxies — who nibbled on caprese sticks, fried chicken and sliders on their way in — sat in the audience gripping paddles they were prepared to raise in the event they wanted to own a piece of history.

Hudson’s bay art collection pieces for auction 27 pieces from The Hudson’s Bay Company’s extensive art collection will be auctioned off on Nov. 19.

The first works sold were canvases painted in oil by W.J. Phillips, a fixture of calendars HBC produced and distributed for free at its department stores and trading posts from 1913 to 1970.

The first of his pieces auctioned off Wednesday sold for $37,500. “Tracking on the Athabasca” shows men roped to boats along an Alberta riverfront in the era when HBC had a fur trade monopoly. The men are bent over and trudging along the banks in an effort to help steady vessels commandeered by rowers with oars that often measured 20 feet.

A second Phillips painting eclipsed the first one when it sold for $130,000, which Heffel said was a record price for the artist. It features the York boat, which HBC used to carry cargo through inland lakes and waterways, sitting in waters with so much sheen they almost appear like glass.

Their sales well exceeded the $15,000 to $25,000 estimate Heffel had set for each of them, and others scheduled to be auctioned off later in the sale were likely to blow even further past the starting price.

painting of Marrakesh by Sir Winston Churchill A painting of Marrakesh by Sir Winston Churchill in the The Heffel Fine Art Auction collection. (CTV News)

One that could fetch an eye-popping sum is the oil on canvas depiction of Marrakech that former British prime minister Winston Churchill created on a painting holiday. The 1935 piece depicting women standing in the shade of palm trees in Morocco was given to HBC by Churchill’s wife and has an estimated value between $400,000 and $600,000.

“But if you look over the past 15 to 20 years, they’ve been regularly going for over a million dollars,” said Norman Vorano, a Queen’s University associate professor of art history, of Churchill’s works.

“This canvas, in particular, it’s such a lovely, kind of sun-soaked, pastel colour, and you don’t get many of his Marrakech paintings on the market. In fact, one of the last ones that came on the market was sold by Angelina Jolie, after her divorce from Brad Pitt, in 2021, and it went for like $11.5 million.”

A detail of Frederic Marlett Bell Smith’s “Lights of a City Street” is shown as some of the works of art destined for the upcoming Hudson’s Bay auction are displayed in Toronto on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young A detail of Frederic Marlett Bell Smith’s “Lights of a City Street” is shown as some of the works of art destined for the upcoming Hudson’s Bay auction are displayed in Toronto on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Another hotly-anticipated piece in the back-half of Wednesday’s auction was “Lights of a City Street” by Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith. The 1894 painting shows pedestrians strolling rainy Yonge and King streets in Toronto, while streetcars trundle past them and news peddlers sell copies of the Evening Telegram — perhaps an allusion to Bell-Smith’s many years drawing for the Canadian Illustrated News. It was valued at between $100,000 and $150,000.

“I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it exceeds the auction range that was spelled out by the auction house,” Vorano said.

In addition to covering their successful bid, buyers must also pay a premium of 25 per cent of the hammer price up to and including $25,000 plus 20 per cent of the hammer price over $25,000 and any applicable sales tax.

If any of the pieces sell for more than their estimates, it will be a delight for HBC. The retailer has been trying to scrounge up as much cash as possible since it filed for creditor protection earlier this year and closed all of its stores. It’s since been working to pay off the $1.1 billion it owes creditors.

Aside from its leases (which largely went unsold because HBC couldn’t convince landlords to let a B.C. billionaire mall owner buy 25 of them), the retailer’s art is the best shot it has at drumming up cash.

Robert Heffel, Heffell Fine Art Auction House Robert Heffel, the vice-president of Heffel Fine Art Auction House, discusses one of the Hudson’s Bay art collection pieces set to be auctioned off on Nov. 19.

Ever since the company floated the prospect of selling its collection, people have been anxious to buy parts of it — or at least ensure it doesn’t wind up outside the country on some billionaire’s wall, never to be seen in Canada again.

Heffel doesn’t publicly identify its bidders by anything other than a paddle number, so it’s unclear who was making offers for the items being sold Wednesday. Some people were likely looking to add to their own collections, while others might want to donate any purchases to a museum, gallery or archival institute.

Dorota Blumczynska, CEO of the Manitoba Museum, said her institution wouldn’t be bidding in HBC’s auctions because it doesn’t have “an adequate acquisitions budget.”

However, she said the museum would be “honoured” to receive anything that aligns with its collection. It already owns 27,000 items, including furnishings from the company’s former head office in London, England and a birchbark canoe from the early 20th century.

Several other museums and galleries The Canadian Press contacted did not respond to requests for comment about whether they’d be in the mix Wednesday.

Anyone who makes the top bid on an item will be notified by Heffel of their victory and receive an invoice they must pay within seven days.

Successful bidders can choose to reveal themselves to the public or remain unknown.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2025