The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) holds a massive collection of art and historical artifacts. A hoard that dates back to the company’s founding in 1670. That collection now includes about 1700 works of art and 2,700 artifacts – which, with one exception, have not been publicly identified.
But HBC is in bankruptcy and has been authorized to sell this collection at auction.
Needless to say, Canadian First Nations, museums, and historians in general are concerned that items of cultural, spiritual, and/or historical importance will end up scattered across the globe in private collections.
The Manitoba Archives received the HBC archives in 1994. That was a collection of such significance that it is now included on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. Some speculate the collection HBC wants to auction off is of equal historical significance.
This will be an ongoing story, but you can get up to date on the issues and where things are at on The Art Newspaper and CBC.