Hudson’s Bay gets court permission to auction off its ‘retail era’ art, artifacts

A person walks by a Hudson’s Bay store in Montreal, Sunday, June 1, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

TORONTO — Canadians hoping to get their hands on treasures from Hudson’s Bay won’t have to wait much longer for the chance.

An Ontario court approved a November auction of 4,400 items belonging to the fallen retailer on Thursday.

The trove Judge Peter Osborne is allowing to be sold includes more than 1,700 pieces of art and about 2,700 artifacts. Though the company has yet to reveal exactly what will be up for grabs, a lawyer for the firm says the items are from Hudson’s Bay’s “retail era,” rather than its fur trading days.

A source familiar with the collection, who was not authorized to speak publicly, has told The Canadian Press the collection includes paintings, paper documents and even collectible Barbie dolls.

A full list of items and photographs of each lot will be made available ahead of the auctions on Heffel Gallery Ltd.’s website, Bay lawyers said. Heffel will split the sale between a series of online auctions beginning Nov. 12 and an in-person one to be held in Toronto around Nov. 19.

The auctions could potentially transfer art and memorabilia belonging to the nation’s oldest company to a wide range of public institutions along with just about anyone with an affinity for art, history or Hudson’s Bay.

Reflect Advisors, a financial adviser to the Bay, said it’s already seen interest from Indigenous groups, government institutions, museums, universities and high-net-worth individuals.

One of them could be the National Gallery of Canada. Josee-Britanie Mallet, a spokesperson for the Crown corporation, said Thursday that the gallery was “keeping a close eye” on the auctions because it is “potentially interested in acquiring from the collection.”

“However, we don’t have any information to share at the moment,” she wrote in an email.

When the Bay started floating the idea of auctioning off its art and artifacts months ago, historians immediately were worried private collectors could scoop up the most prized items, keeping them out of public view, if the buyer doesn’t donate them.

Others thought that the high sums items could fetch will keep what’s available out of reach of Indigenous groups, whose people and land formed a key part of the Bay’s fur trading origins.

The same concerns have dogged the potential sale of the company’s royal charter, a document that allowed for the creation of the business in 1670. Hudson’s Bay wants to sell the charter through a separate sales process hosted by Reflect next month but isn’t expected to seek court approval for that plan until Monday.

Twenty-four artifacts were recently removed from the proposed auction block because they are believed to be of Indigenous origin or heritage. The Bay has said it will return or donate these items but has not detailed what they are or said who it will surrender the items to or how soon. Three of the pieces are currently on long-term loan to a museum, which the company has yet to identify.

Bay lawyer Ashley Taylor said any further items discovered of Indigenous origin will be removed from the auctions.

The retailer donated the bulk of its prior artifacts to the Archives of Manitoba in 1994. It has since hosted the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives (HBCA). Around the same time, it gave 27,000 items to the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg.

Reflect managing director Adam Zalev has said in court documents that the Bay has a collection of archival records that have not been donated to the HBCA. Their future is currently “under review.”

The company also has four war memorials located at various Bay stores and an additional two held in storage. Taylor said they will be donated to organizations that can display them in the communities the memorials were based. He said legions and TD Bank Group would be among the recipients.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2025.

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press