Once lost Harris work sells for $1.1M at auction

A watershed Lawren Harris work that was long believed to have been destroyed sold fornearly $1.1 million at auction Monday.

Well-known Canadian art agent David Loch purchased Figure with Rays of Light (Arctic Forms III) in Toronto for an undisclosed Canadian collector.

Sotheby's Canada, which held the Monday auction in conjunction with Ritchies Auctioneers, had estimated it would sell for between $100,000 to $150,000.

The work, which the famed artist completed after his trip to the Arctic with fellow Group of Seven artist A. Y. Jackson in 1930, signaled his shift to abstract art.

Though art scholars knew aboutthe large-scale Harris work, the painting itself was believed lost at some point in the 1930s until it emerged recently in the holdings of a Toronto collector.

"Harris is probably the most important, most prolific and the most accomplished of the Group of Seven. His work is valued the highest above them all," Sotheby's Canada president David Silcox said last week.

At an auction held Thursday by Heffel's in Vancouver, Harris's works were the top three biggest sellers, with his snowy mountain scene Mount Lefroy going for $1.67 million, including the buyer's premium. The most expensive Harris painting ever purchased at auction, Baffin Island, sold for $2.5 million in 2001.

Loch picks up 'lost' Milne

Loch, who in the past has purchased art on behalf of media magnate Ken Thomson — considered Canada's best known art collector, also purchased a rare painting by David Milne, The Yard at the Glenmore Hotel.

The tranquil scene sold for $255,500, including the buyer's premium. It had been estimated to sell for between $175,000 and $225,000.

Loch would not sayif he had purchased both paintings for the same buyer, according to the Canadian Press.

Milne had written about the painting in letters to a friend. But after he sold the canvas to a U.S. ad executive in 1928, nothing was heard about it again.

An art collector in Connecticut recently dug the painting out of his holdings and offered it for sale. He had purchased it himself at a regional auction more than a decade ago.

New records set for Lemieux, Colville

A number of artists represented at Monday's saleset new records, including Quebec artist Jean-Paul Lemieux. His imposing canvas The Conversation, completed in 1968, sold for $439,500.

Enthusiastic bidding also drove up a piece by Alex Colville, whosework rarely turns up at auction. It wentfar above its estimate of between $40,000 to $60,000. The 1953 painting Soldier and Girl at Station sold for $663,750 — more than doublethe painter'sprevious record.

Also, the impressionist painting Knitting by Henrietta Mable May, a member of Quebec's female-dominated Beaver Hall collective,fetched $347,500. It had been estimated to sell for between $60,000 and $80,000.

In total, the Sotheby's-Ritchies sale generated $7.3 million.

The Canadian spring auction season continues with a two-day sale beginning Tuesday at Joyner Waddington's in Toronto.