A group of First Nations Chiefs has asked the Hudson’s Bay Company to halt the auction of its 1,700 pieces of artwork and 2,700 artifacts until a First Nations-led review has been conducted.
After mounting debt, the Hudson’s Bay Company announced that it would be going out of business this year. The company applied for protection from their creditors under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on March 7.
Initially, the company said it was planning to restructure the business by reducing its number of stores. However, it has since said that it will be liquidating all of its assets. This includes historic artwork and artifacts collected over the company’s 355-year history.
Founded on May 2, 1670 as a fur trading business, the Hudson’s Bay Company is the oldest continually operating company in the world. During that time, it collected artifacts significant to Canadian history. The company says it plans to sell these artifacts to bidders in an auction separate from its liquidation process.
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But in a letter from the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, Grand Chief Kyra Wilson said that she has “deep concern” over the sale of these artifacts.
“Given the nature and scope of HBC’s (Hudson’s Bay Company) long-standing relationship with First Nations, it is likely, if not certain, that many of the artifacts slated for auction are of profound cultural, spiritual, and historical significance to First Nations people,” she said. “Selling these items at auction without full transparency and consultation with impacted First Nations would not only be morally irresponsible but also represent a continuation of the colonial dispossession of First Nations’ lands and belongings that the HBC directly profited from for centuries.”
The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs has requested that the Hudson’s Bay Company halts the sale of any artifacts linked with First Nations, make the catalogue of auction items public, conduct a First Nations-led review process, and work with appropriate institutions and First Nations to identify pathways for repatriation, shared stewardship, and respectful preservation.
Alvarez & Marsal Canada Inc., the court-appointed monitor for the Hudson’s Bay Company, responded to the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs saying that the full catalogue of proposed items up for auction will be made public and the monitor is open to further discussions.
Alvarez & Marsal Canada has yet to confirm whether the auction will be halted, though. In an April 22 report, the monitor said that bidders in the auction would have to submit non-binding letters of interest by April 30, 2025. The report went on to say that the auction has attracted significant interest from various parties, including government and quasigovernmental institutions, museums, universities, and high net worth individuals acting on their own accord or as potential benefactors to Canadian museums and institutions.
One of the artifacts that could be up for sale is the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Royal Proclamation Charter. King Charles II granted the company this founding document in 1670. It allowed the company to act as both a business and a colonial government, taking ownership of First Nations’ land. This included the company selling Rupert’s Land, a vast territory of northern wilderness, to Canada in 1869 without First Nations, Inuit, or Metis peoples’ consent.
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The charter has never been donated to a museum because the company was actively using it as a corporate record.
“The HBC’s legacy is inseparable from the post-contact history of the original peoples on this land. These artifacts are not simply ‘valuable assets’ or one-of-a-kind collectibles, but pieces of living history, some of which may be sacred, stolen from First Nations, or properly First Nations-owned,” Wilson said.
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