CANADIAN RECORDS SMASHED IN VANCOUVER

VANCOUVER -- The record for the largest dollar-valued art auction in Canadian history was mightily smashed Wednesday night in Vancouver by Heffel Fine Art House.

Heffel sold more than 219 lots for a mind-boggling $22.8-million. The total sales figure, which includes a 15-per-cent buyers' premium, easily surpassed the conservative estimate of a $12-million to $16-million sale. It nearly doubled the previous $12.5-million record, also set by Heffel, in Toronto in November, 2005.

The auction, which included four paintings that sold for more than $1-million each, saw at least a dozen Canadian fine-art records broken.

Leading the way was Pine Tree and Red House, Winter, City Painting II, by Group of Seven founder Lawren Harris, which went for $2.875-million, including premium.

"It's a tasty painting and deserved to go for that price," said Anthony Westbridge, publisher of The Art Market Report. He pointed to another great winter composition by Harris, Snow, Algonquin Park (circa 1916-17), which sold for $1.035-million, including premium.

Other big sellers included two small Tom Thomson sketches, Spring Woods (1916) and Summer Clouds (1916), which each sold for $1.035-million, and an oil-on-panel sketch by A.Y. Jackson, Eskimo Houses, Pond Inlet, Baffin Island, which set a record at $184,000. Okanagan Lake, a 1959 oil by E.J. Hughes, sold for $402,500. The seller purchased it six years ago at a yard sale -- for $200.

The spring season continues in Toronto next week, with the Sotheby's sale on Monday and the Joyner sale on Tuesday.

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