In its spring auction last night Heffel Fine Art Auction House reached $14.6 million in sales highlighting prolific Canadian artists and their works in Canadian post-war and contemporary art and fine Canadian art.
The 184 lots up for sale included some of Canada’s most reputable and recognizable works, many being displayed in public for the first time in generations.
The live auction attracted hundreds of buyers, present in the ballroom, watching live online, and on phone from across Canada and around the world.
Starting the auction off was West Coast modernist B.C. Binning’s Two Ships Standing Off, which sold for $64,350, earlier estimated at between $20,000 and $30,000.
Jean Paul Lemieux’s La plage américaine, exceeded pre-sale estimates and sold for $1.8 million. The total for all Lemieuxes in last night’s sale was $2.5 million, including Le mois de juin, for $380,250 and Monseigneur for $163,800.
David Heffel, president of Heffel Fine Art, said, “The Lemieux market continued very strong this evening.
“This represents the second most valuable Lemieux at auction following the record for Nineteen Ten Remembered that Heffel set last fall.”
One of the most anticipated lots of the evening’s auction, Emily Carr's Eagle Totem, sold for $1.6 million.
This piece was expected to sell for between $600,000 and $800,000.
Heffel’s sale of Eagle Totem is the second highest-selling price for an Emily Carr at auction.
The result of $14.6 million was well beyond the $9 million to $12 million pre-sale estimate.
