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Brothers behind Heffel auctions expect Thursday's sale will be historic
11/26/2009
TORONTO -- The brothers behind Thursday's Heffel fine art auction -- which will feature masterworks by Lawren Harris and Tom Thomson -- say the event promises to be a standout.
"When we're old and crabby art dealers this sale will definitely be one of our milestones in our career," said David Heffel.
David and his brother Robert say the fall auction, with 210 items up for sale, is expected to bring in between $11 million to $15 million.
A $15-million night would rank the auction as the third richest art sale ever in Canada, although well short of the record $23.03 million at a Heffel auction in May 2007.
But the breadth of masterpieces that will go on sale Thursday will make for a memorable event, regardless of the final result, said David Heffel.
"There's some tremendous works and some of our collectors are comparing the quality of this auction to the quality of our May 2007 record sale," he said.
The auction is bolstered by an impressive slate of works from the estate of Helen E. Band, daughter of Canadian art collector Charles Band. Among them are three paintings by Group of Seven member Harris, which are all expected to sell for more than a million dollars.
"Charlie Band was at the forefront of collecting Canadian art in his generation and a figure the size of a Ken Thomson," said David Heffel.
"He had a school boy relationship with Harris ... and had an opportunity to get three or four of the finest Lawren Harris's directly from the artist, and produced relationships with other members of the Group of Seven and acquired some very fine works."
The sale's most expensive painting is expected to be Harris's "The Old Stump, Lake Superior," an oil sketch of "North Shore, Lake Superior," which resides in the National Gallery of Canada and is considered to be one of Harris's most important works.
It's estimated to sell for between $2 million to $2.5 million.
Harris's "Iceberg, Baffin's Bay North" and "Houses, St. Patrick Street" are both expected to sell for $1.2 million to $1.6 million.
Other notable items include Tom Thomson's "Early Spring, Canoe Lake," estimated to sell for $600,000 to $800,000; A.Y. Jackson's "North Shore, Lake Superior," estimated to go for $450,000 to $550,000; and Frederick Horsman Varley's "Nude on a Couch," estimated to go for $400,000 to $500,000.
On Tuesday, Joyner Waddington had its fall auction of Canadian art and saw a unique Thomson painting sell for $973,000, while a Harris painting went for $708,000. Both sums include an 18 per cent buyer's premium.
The Heffels insisted they wouldn't be paying much attention to the results of other auctions but said they're confident buyers will turn out ready to spend, despite the state of the economy.
"The Canadian art market has remained very strong through the financial turmoil that we saw last fall," said Robert Heffel.
"We had an auction last fall that was one of the bigger auctions in Canadian history -- it was in the $12-million range -- and then our spring sale did very well.
"The Canadian art market and the fundamentals of the Canadian economy have improved since that time so we anticipate this will continue to be a strong sale."
His brother David added that the quality of the art on offer should be very enticing for buyers.
"When a great painting comes up for auction collectors get very excited and often that opportunity can be a once in a lifetime opportunity," he said.
"The paintings at (the pricier) levels are being bought by passionate and serious collectors who really appreciate the opportunity when a work comes up that is a special museum quality," he said. "They'll participate."
Also included in the auction are eight works from an anonymous Canadian philanthropist who will donate the proceeds from the sales to charity.
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