Intriguing and Fierce Bid Mark Heffel Art Auction

tomtidgewellNovember 25, 2022

Heffel auction has a live audience for the first time since the pandemic

A painting by Lauren Stewart Harris, Arctic Sketch XV, sold for $2.04 million at the Heffel Art Auction on November 24th. Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG

A large 1924 Lauren Harris canvas, Winter Ward House, Painting No. 1, sold for $2.52 million on Thursday at the Heffel Auction of Impressionist and Contemporary Art in Canada.

But it wasn’t the most dramatic sale.

Bids for smaller Harris live “sketch” paintings began in Burglake, Evening, at $600,000.

Auctioneer Robert Heffel of Toronto’s Park Hyatt Hotel and a live crowd seemed to be stunned.

“Does he have a dinner reservation?” Heffel joked. “Is he in a hurry?”

After a long silence, another bidder placed a bid of $1.25 million, but an unknown telephone bidder increased the bid to $1.3 million, adding a 20% commission to $1.562 million.

Lauren Stewart Harris' painting, Evening at Lake Berg, sold for $1,562,000 at an art auction in Heffel. — Lauren Stewart Harris’ painting, Evening at Lake Berg, sold for $1,562,000 at an art auction in Heffel. Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG

The bidder attempted the same tactic on the next painting in the auction, another Harris sketch, the 1930s Arctic Sketch XV.

This time, however, it didn’t seem to scare other buyers, with the bid quickly making $1.7 million and $2.04 million in fees.

An unknown bidder also bought the Harris. But that didn’t pan out when they bounced an initial bid of $800,000 for Tom Thomson’s Moccasin Flower or Orchid, Algonquin Park, to $1.2 million. This will be reflected in the price.)

The most active bid was for Marcel Ferron’s 1962 untitled abstract, when two collectors faced off when the bid was $700,000, resulting in $1.8 million, six times the highest bid of $300,000. increased in price.

There was also a bidding war for a 1985 Andy Warhol portrait of Queen Elizabeth II lightly dusted in crushed glass “diamond dust” which sold for $1.14 million. Both Ferron and Warhol were sold at the postwar and contemporary art afternoon session.

The auction had a live audience for the first time since the pandemic. But it was streamed through Heffel’s “digital showroom,” and most bids were made over the phone or online.

jmackie@postmedia.com

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