Auction raises $700K for WAG

Eva Wasney By: Eva Wasney Posted:

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The Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq raised more than $700,000 this week in an auction of artwork from the gallery’s permanent collection.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/11/2024 (660 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq raised more than $700,000 this week in an auction of artwork from the gallery’s permanent collection.

Hosted Wednesday in Toronto by Cowley Abbott, this was the third and final deaccession sale of its kind designed to raise money for the gallery’s Legacy Fund, used for the purchase of work by Indigenous, racialized and contemporary Canadian artists.

Several of the 19 pieces in the lot sold above pre-auction estimates, surpassing the WAG’s goal of raising $500,000 through the sale.

Among the high-earning artwork was Ivan Eyre’s surreal 1992 cityscape Canal Square, which sold for $264,000 — triple the top end of estimates.

A heated bidding war caused William Kurelek’s painting A Little Girl and Her Snowman to sell for $216,000, 14 times higher than the top-end estimate of $15,000.

Tom Thomson’s Giant’s Tomb, Georgian Bay, Summer 1914 and Kent Monkman’s Study for the Deluge also both exceeded expectations.

More than $2 million has been raised for the WAG’s Legacy Fund via the auction initiative.

Eva Wasney

Eva Wasney
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Eva Wasney covers environmental issues in Manitoba for The Narwhal in partnership with the Winnipeg Free Press. Read more about Eva.

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Eva Wasney

Eva Wasney
Reporter

Eva Wasney covers environmental issues in Manitoba for The Narwhal in partnership with the Winnipeg Free Press. Read more about Eva.

Every piece of reporting Eva produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

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