Chinese calligraphy album found in Canadian basement fetches more than $1 million at auction

April Yin, Asian Art specialist with Heffel Fine Art Auction House, shows examples of Chinese calligraphy which were sold for more than $1 million on Oct. 30 in an undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Heffel Fine Art Auction House

TORONTO — A centuries-old calligraphy album that was once part of the Chinese emperor’s royal collection and found in a Canadian basement has fetched more than $1 million at a Canadian auction, many times its projected sale price.

Heffel Fine Art Auction House said the “extremely rare” ink on silk calligraphy album was created by Zhao Mengfu, who was a distinguished Chinese calligrapher and painter during the Yuan dynasty, which is the only Mongol-led Imperial dynasty of China from about 700 years ago.

The bidding price at Thursday’s sale in Toronto started at $15,000 but soared to $900,000, and landed at $1,081,250 with the buyer’s premium.

The auction house had estimated the 37-page album -- adorned with silk brocade covering wooden frames -- would sell for between $20,000 and $30,000.

April Yin, an Asian art specialist with Heffel, said the sale has “put so much energy into the Canadian Asian art market” by being the highest-priced work ever sold at Heffel’s online auction, which they have been running for more than 25 years.

She said the album is remarkable for having four imperial seals, and for once being part of the Qianlong emperor’s palace collection, preserved at the Forbidden City.

The auction house said the album is listed in the Shiqu Baoji, also billed as the Qing emperor’s family art collection, which documents some of the most treasured works of art and was hand-selected by Emperor Qianlong, who reigned 1736-1795.

“It was once part of the Qianlong emperor’s palace collection and formally documented in the imperial art inventory of the Qing court, which is a distinction reserved for the most highly valued works in Chinese art history,” read a statement.

“A piece of Chinese art of this calibre is incredibly rare to the Canadian market,” it continued.

Yin said the album was later owned by Wang Yiling, who was a banker during the Republic of China era, lasting from 1911 to 1949, and he built a collection of Chinese paintings and calligraphy.

Yiling’s descendants later immigrated to Brazil, Taiwan, and North America, bringing their father’s collection with them. Yin said her team was invited by Wang’s family to visit their home at the beginning of this year when they discovered the album, which had been sitting in the family’s basement in Vancouver for decades before it was revealed to the world.

She said she couldn’t reveal the buyer’s identity due to client confidentiality but said the auction attracted buyers worldwide.

“Maybe later on, we can see it in the museum or in the market again, that’s when the world will discover who got the work,” she said.

Yin said it’s not surprising to see the hammering price for the calligraphy album since Mengfu’s work has always been culturally significant, especially in this case, because the album went straight from being the Qing Emperor’s personal art catalogue to being in the care of prominent collectors.

“Works with these features would likely fetch high in the Chinese market of calligraphy and painting,” said Yin, adding that it’s exciting to see there is so much enthusiasm for Asian artwork in Canada.

“It’s just amazing when a work with this cultural and historical significance appears, everybody would be listening about it, talking about it, and bidding on it,” said Yin.

Yin said Heffel’s last online auction record was set in 2022 by Under the Wave off Kanagawa, also known as the Great Wave, a woodblock print created by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai, which was sold below $700,000.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2025.

--By Nono Shen in Vancouver