A painting by Winston Churchill, rare works by William Berczy, and a celebrated depiction of Toronto’s downtown in the 1890s are among the highlights of a major Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) art and artifact auction set for next month.
The defunct retailer, which collapsed earlier this year, has enlisted Heffel Fine Art Auction House to sell 27 high-profile pieces to help repay creditors. The auction offers the public its first look at a collection that was largely kept secret following HBC’s filing for creditor protection, despite numbering some 4,400 works and artifacts.
The star of the auction is Churchill’s Marrakech, an oil-on-canvas created during a painting holiday in Morocco around 1935. The piece, gifted to HBC that same year, features women standing in the shade of palm trees under brilliant sunlight. Heffel estimates its value between $400,000 and $600,000, making it the most valuable item in the sale.
Also featured is Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith’s 1894 Lights of a City Street, a moody Toronto streetscape of Yonge and King on a rainy night. Extensively exhibited at major Canadian galleries, it is described by Heffel as the artist’s most significant work ever to reach auction, with an estimated value of $100,000 to $150,000.
Two monumental early 19th-century paintings by William von Moll Berczy — one of Toronto’s founders — are also included. Nearly seven feet tall, Battle of Trafalgar and Rear Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson are valued between $70,000 and $90,000 each.
Other notable items include original artworks commissioned for HBC’s historical calendars (1913–1970), pieces by Canadian artists such as W.J. Phillips and Frank Johnston, and a contemporary pop-art piece by Charles Pachter titled Bay Watch (2011), valued between $15,000 and $25,000.
The works will be displayed in Toronto from November 11 to 18, with a live auction on November 19. Most remaining artifacts — described as “retail era” ephemera including HBC blankets, coins, toys, and store antiques — will be sold online from November 12 to December 4.
Excluded from the auction are 24 Indigenous artifacts earmarked for donation, and HBC’s 1670 royal charter, its most valuable historical document. The company is expected to seek court approval to auction the charter separately, with stipulations that the buyer must donate it to a public institution. Both the Weston and Thomson families have expressed interest in acquiring it.
David Heffel, president of Heffel Fine Art Auction House, called the sale “a historic moment” for collectors to preserve a piece of Canada’s cultural legacy.