Hudson's Bay closes auctions with sale of Norval Morrisseau paintings

"Childlike simplicity in tune with nature because we are one" by Norval Morrisseau was part of the Hudson's Bay collection being auctioned off. (Heffel Fine Art Auction House)

Hudson’s Bay has completed the final auction in a series that found new owners for its trove of art — this one featuring six paintings with ties to Norval Morrisseau.

The sale was hosted online by Heffel Fine Art Auction House.

Three of the pieces sold in the auction were created by the late Indigenous artist Norval Morrisseau and three came from his studio. Studio paintings are typically completed by assistants in an artist’s workshop.

The top Morrisseau painting was a vibrant acrylic on canvas attributed to his studio. It sold for $27,500.

The Morrisseau works were up for auction alongside vintage HBC signs, a basketball and jersey signed by former Toronto Raptor Pascal Siakam and various other pieces of memorabilia and art that belonged to the collapsed department store.

The piece that fetched the most money was a portrait of Duke of Marlborough John Churchill by the Studio of Michael Dahl. It sold for $50,000.

HBC started auctioning off its 4,400 pieces of art and artifacts last year after the business closed and needed to make money to pay off creditors.

Court documents say a live auction held last year, five subsequent online sales and the sale in May of a single painting depicting Prince Rupert made the defunct department store a collective $9.5 million.

The company is still awaiting receipt of the proceeds of the sixth and seventh online auctions. Thursday’s auction was the company’s eighth and final online sale.

Some of Morrisseau’s pictographic paintings have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars, but since his death in 2007, about 6,000 fake works attributed to the artist have been uncovered. Police have called it the biggest art fraud in world history.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 3, 2026.

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press