The Hudson's Bay Company, a historic Canadian department store chain that declared bankruptcy in March, began selling off its art collection. On November 19, 27 paintings from the retailer's trove were auctioned by Canadian auction house Heffel, all selling well above estimate. The top lot was an impressionistic painting of a Marrakech street by Winston Churchill, which sold for $1.5 million, more than tripling its low estimate. Other notable sales included Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith's 'Lights of a City Street' at $691,250 and works by William von Moll Berczy and Charles Pachter.
This sale matters because it marks the dissolution of a significant corporate art collection tied to one of Canada's oldest companies, whose history spans fur trading, colonialism, and retail. The strong auction results, with many works exceeding estimates by multiples, demonstrate robust collector demand for both historical Canadian art and celebrity-associated works like Churchill's. The dispersal of the Hudson's Bay Company collection also raises questions about the preservation of corporate cultural heritage during bankruptcy proceedings.