Heffel Fine Art Auction takes $11.7 million
Published November 26th, 2006
Works by a modern painter, an impressionist, a member of the Group of Seven, and Canada’s first prime minister helped make the Heffel Fine Art Auction the second most lucrative event of its kind in Canada’s history.
A painting by legendary Canadian artist Jean-Paul Riopelle sold for almost $1.7 million, Tom Thomson’s dramatic display of the Aurora Borealis sold for $776,000, and a letter by Sir John A. McDonald went for $34,500 at the auction held Friday night in Toronto.
Il etait une fois une ville was one of three Riopelle paintings to sell for a combined $2.2 million.
Robert Heffel, one of the evening’s auctioneers and partner in the art house, said the sale price for the Riopelle paintings was a “definite highlight” of the evening, which netted $11.7 million.
The sale has become the second most lucrative auction in Canadian history, surpassing another Heffel sale mounted two years ago.
The Heffels were also responsible for the top sale in Canadian history, which brought in $12.5 million last fall.
For this latest auction, Heffel noted that most of the lots sold for well beyond their presale prices.
“The presale estimate was six to eight million, so we’ve pretty much doubled the low estimate,” Heffel said in an interview from the auction floor.
Roughly 450 people and 100 telephone bidders from Canada, the United States, the U.K. and Asia were on hand to take part in the bidding.
