{"id":596326,"date":"2026-08-17T20:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T20:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/596326\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T20:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T20:10:10","slug":"torontos-fifa-world-cup-beaver-sculptures-up-for-auction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/596326\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto\u2019s FIFA World Cup beaver sculptures up for auction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Turkey beaver sculpture in Toronto on June 5. More than 13,000 people reportedly played the Great Beaver Quest scavenger hunt between May 25 and Aug. 16.Giordano Ciampini\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Hand-painted beaver statues representing different countries in the FIFA World Cup<\/a> that were sprawled across the eastern downtown neighbourhood of Old Town Toronto are now up for auction<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The auction began on Friday and online bidding on 50 beaver installations has already received more than $30,000 in bids, said the Old Town Toronto Business Improvement Area, which is behind the project.<\/p>\n

Bidding began at $300 per sculpture and the auction is set to close on Aug. 24.<\/p>\n

The organization said proceeds will be split equally between two charitable organizations: Toronto\u2019s First Post Office and KidSport Ontario.<\/p>\n

There are 51 distinct beaver sculptures across old downtown. Forty-eight of them are a nod to the soccer teams playing at the FIFA World Cup, which kicks off this week. Two others are to welcome the world, while one celebrates the vibrant Old Town Toronto.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

These vibrant beavers with wide grins and a soccer ball clutched under their right paw were a part of an artistic scavenger hunt, which ran between May 25 and Aug. 16.<\/p>\n

The organization initially displayed 51 distinct sculptures across the historic neighbourhood near St. Lawrence Market and the Hockey Hall of Fame. <\/p>\n

Of them, 48 were a nod to the nations represented in the World Cup \u2013 each of them hand-painted by artists with roots or other connections to those participating countries. Two others served to welcome the world, while one celebrated the neighbourhood itself. <\/p>\n

Later, the BIA secretly added a 52nd Canadian-themed beaver featuring a maple leaf pattern in fall colours. It has so far garnered the highest bid of $2,100 as of Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The beaver representing Spain, which won the tournament this year, had a bid nearing $1,000, while the Scottish beaver appeared to be another hot commodity with a bid of $2,025 on Monday.<\/p>\n

Beavers are welcoming World Cup tourists to downtown Toronto<\/a><\/p>\n

Two of the sculptures, representing Canada and Old Town Toronto, are not currently listed for sale in the auction.<\/p>\n

The BIA says more than 13,000 people played the Great Beaver Quest over almost 12 weeks. <\/p>\n

Each statue had a QR code, which linked players to a scavenger hunt sign-up and participants earned points by completing challenges \u2013 and had a chance to win gift cards to local businesses.<\/p>\n

The four-foot-tall sculptures mimic similar public art projects, notably the Moose in the City project that saw Toronto host hundreds of life-size, decorated moose statues in 2000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The Turkey beaver sculpture in Toronto on June 5. More than 13,000 people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[2522,307,304,2511,305,306,2523,2476,2503,2524,289,2502,2516,2517,2513,2504,2501,308,113,835,93,246,2515,2509,2533,2505,2506,1523,61,60,2512,166,1529,2525,768,2528,2529,2531,2526,2530,2152,2527,2507,2519,2520,1650,2518,2153,2510,80,2521,2514,2508,268,2532],"class_list":["post-596326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-alberta","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-arts-news","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-design","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-entertainment","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}