Heffel Fine Art Auction House (or Heffel) is a division of Heffel Gallery Limited. Heffel maintains offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

History

In 1978 art collector Kenneth Grant Heffel (1935–1987) established Kenneth G. Heffel Fine Art Inc. in the former Royal Bank of Canada building on South Granville Street in Vancouver. In 1980, the former industrialist purchased the Fannin Hall Collection of 145 works by Canada’s Group of Seven artists and their contemporaries for $6 million. In February, an exhibition of this collection established his reputation as a dealer of important Canadian art. On his death in 1987, his sons David Heffel (born 1962) and Robert Heffel (born 1964), both educated in art history, took over the business. Renamed Heffel Gallery Limited, the company continued to show work by well-known Canadian artists such as

Alex Colville David Alexander Colville, LL. D. (24 August 1920 – 16 July 2013) was a painter and printmaker who continues to achieve both popular and critical success. Early life and war artist Born in 1920 in Toronto, Ontario, Colville moved with his ...

, Guido Molinari,

Emily Carr Emily Carr (or M. Emily Carr as she sometimes signed her work) (December 13, 1871 – March 2, 1945) was a Canadian artist and writer who was inspired by the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. One of the painters in Canada to ado ...

and

Lawren Harris Lawren Stewart Harris LL. D. (October 23, 1885 – January 29, 1970) was a Canadian painter, best known as a leading member of the Group of Seven. He played a key role as a catalyst in Canadian art and as a visionary in Canadian landscape art. ...

. In 1995, the two brothers established the division of Heffel Fine Art Auction House. The inaugural auction held in Vancouver was the first in Western Canada to record sales over $1 million. Heffel was the first in Canada to adapt the traditional auction format to the Internet. In 1999, Heffel held its first online auction in September. In that same year, Heffel established the tradition of semi-annual live auctions and, in 2003, began to alternate between a spring auction held in Vancouver and a fall auction in Toronto. The auction house was also the first in Canada to broadcast sales live on the Internet using a multi-camera webcast. In 2002, Heffel opened an Ottawa office and established Heffel Gallery in Toronto, at 13 Hazelton Avenue in Yorkville. In 2005, Heffel established Galerie Heffel in Montreal at 1840 Sherbrooke Street West and, in 2007, employed a Calgary representative. With offices across Canada, the company is described as a "globally significant, yet surprisingly local, institution." The fall, 2004 live auction established Heffel as the leader in Canada’s fine art resale market. Since then Heffel has maintained an approximate 60% share of the market. In spring 2007, Heffel set the record for the highest grossing live auction of Canadian art. By June 2013, with more than $325 million in total art auction sales, Heffel had sold more Canadian art than any other auctioneer in the world.

Auctions of note

*2000-fall: ''War Canoes, Alert Bay'' by

sold for $1,018,750 CDN, set a new record for the artist, and was the most valuable work sold at live auction in Canada in 2000. *2004-fall: ''Fishboats, Rivers Inlet'' by E. J. Hughes sold for $920,000 CDN, a new record for the artist. The total auction results of $8.5 million set a new record for a single-session live auction of Canadian art. *2006-fall: ''Il était une fois une ville'' by

Jean-Paul Riopelle Jean-Paul Riopelle, (October 7, 1923 – March 12, 2002) was a Canadian painter and sculptor from Quebec. He had one of the longest and most important international careers of the sixteen signatories of the ''Refus Global'', the 1948 manif ...

sold for $1,667,500 CDN, a new auction record for a Riopelle in Canada. *2007-spring: ''Pine Tree'' and ''Red House, Winter, City Painting II'' by Lawren Harris sold for $2,875,000 CDN, a new record for the artist. ''Spring Woods and Summer Clouds'' by

Tom Thomson Thomas John Thomson (August 5, 1877July 8, 1917) was a Canadian artist active in the early 20th century. During his short career, he produced roughly 400 oil sketches on small wood panels and approximately 50 larger works on canvas. His ...

sold for over $1 million each also set a new record for the artist. The total sales of $22.8 million CDN set a record for the highest grossing live auction. *2009-spring: ''Wind in the Tree Tops'' by Emily Carr sold for a record $2,164,500 CDN. *2009-fall: ''The Old Stump, Lake Superior'' by Lawren Harris sold for a record $3,510,000 CDN. *2010-fall: ''Man on Verandah'' by

sold for $1,287,000 CDN, the highest auction result for a living Canadian artist on record. *2011-fall: ''Nineteen Ten Remembered'' by Jean Paul Lemieux sold for $2.34 million CDN. *2013-spring: ''Composition'' by Jean-Paul Riopelle sold for $1.228 million CDN, while ''A Quebec Village (Winter, Saint-Fidèle)'' by

A. Y. Jackson Alexander Young Jackson LL. D. (October 3, 1882April 5, 1974) was a Canadian painter and a founding member of the Group of Seven. Jackson made a significant contribution to the development of art in Canada, and was instrumental in bringing toget ...

sold for $585,000 CDN. Total auction sales were $11.5 million CDN.Canada News Wire
“Heffel 2013 spring auction achieves strong sales of $11.5 million” CDN
16 May 2013. *2015-fall: ''Mountain and Glacier'' by Lawren Harris sold for an artist's record $3.9 million CDN, while another Harris work ''Winter Landscape'' sold for a

hammer price In auctions, the buyer's premium is a charge in addition to the hammer price (i.e. the winning bid announced) of an auction item, or lot. The winning bidder is required to pay both the hammer price and the percentage of that price called for by th ...

of $3.1 million CDN,

's ''Harbour'' sold for $1.6 million CDN, and ''After the Storm'' by

, believed to be the artist's final completed painting, sold for $1.1 million CDN

References

External links

* * ARTnews
"A good week for canadian art reflects robust economy"
12 Dec. 2006. {{Vancouver Corporations Art museums and galleries in British Columbia Canadian auction houses Retail companies established in 1978 Art galleries established in 1978 Companies based in Vancouver 1978 establishments in British Columbia