Heffel Gallery Limited Vancouver, Canadá

Granville Street 2247
V6H 3G1 - Vancouver (Canadá)

The Heffel reputation in the Canadian art business was started by industrialist and art collector Kenneth G. Heffel in 1978 when he set up his business in an old Royal Bank of Canada heritage building on Vancouver's Gallery Row. The gregarious Heffel slowly built up his collection and clientele armed with an initial investment of valuable paintings by Canadian masters. Heffel Sr. established a reputation for buying and selling the best works of Canadian artists. In 1987 after nearly a decade in the fine art business, Heffel passed away leaving his sons, David, then 25, and Robert, 23, to carry on the family name.
Brothers David and Robert Heffel grew up in a home filled with fine Canadian art and both studied Art History at the University of British Columbia. Within a few years of taking ownership, David and Robert identified a significant shift in art collecting with the rapid growth of the international fine art auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's. Further down the West Coast, the success of regional fine art auction house Butterfield & Butterfield, San Francisco, confirmed to the Heffels that there was a need for a leading fine art auction house in the Pacific Northwest.

Heffel Fine Art Auction House, a division of Heffel Gallery Limited was established in 1995 and in their first auction accomplished the goal of becoming the first western Canadian fine art auction to achieve a $1,000,000-plus auction sale. The Heffels revolutionized the way art is sold in Canada. They now conduct two live auction events annually: one in May; one in November; featuring sales of Fine Canadian Art.

Challenged by the prejudice towards their youthful age in a fine art industry that prides itself on old-age wisdom, the Heffel brothers began to take advantage of a unique combination of skills - years of experience in the fine art business and an understanding of how Internet technology could be utilized by art business.

Based on the success of Heffel Fine Art Auction House and emerging dominance of the Internet, the Heffels were soon fast at work creating another way to bring quality masterworks to the public. In the September of 1999, Heffel.com Online Auctions was launched. The monthly online auction combines the buzz and anticipation of a live auction with the dynamism of the Internet. Says David Heffel: "When we hold a live auction in a ballroom, there is a buzz in the room, an excitement, a thrill. We have found that same sort of excitement and anticipation generated online."

Heffel.com soon expanded the services it offered to the serious art collector by introducing the Canadian Art at Auction Index, a subscription resource database of over 23 years of Canadian art at auction sales. The sophisticated index contains in excess of 30,000 records and 21,000 image reproductions. Today heffel.com has become the number one Internet resource site for the Canadian art market.

In May 2000, the Heffels achieved the highest priced Canadian painting sold at auction in that year, an Emily Carr canvas that sold for more than one million dollars. The most recent sale in November 2003 was the Heffels' fifteenth consecutive auction to sell more than $1-million worth of fine art, and the eighth in a row to top $2-million, with $3.7-million in sales. In May 2004 Heffel's live auction exceeded $5 million dollars. The Heffel's conducted what was at that time the largest dollar value art auction in Canadian history with their November 25, 2004 live auction of Fine Canadian Art $8.49 million dollar sale. Heffel's subsequently surpassed that lofty sale total on November 24, 2005 with their historic $12.4 million dollar sale.

Thus Heffel Fine Art Auction House has the distinction of conducting the highest dollar value art auction in Canadian history with their $12.4 million dollar sale on Thursday November 24, 2005 as well as the distinction of conducting the second highest dollar valued art auction in Canadian history with their November 2004 $8.49 million dollar sale.

Today, Heffel Fine Art Auction House conducts annual live Canadian fine art auctions in May (in Vancouver) and November (in Toronto), while successfully operating its monthly online auctions with specialty sales that include Canadian, American and European art. In October 2005, the Heffels completed their 74th consecutive monthly online auction with a record online sale of Fine British European and American Art sale at $950,000.

Heffel Fine Art publishes its entire auction online (www.heffel.com), from initial promotion and illustrated lot listings to the auction's live multi-camera web cast and final sale results. This, combined with their printed catalogue, has generated unparalleled collector participation in sales, with bidders from across Canada, the United States, the U.K. and Asia. Because of Heffel's strength in the Canadian and international art market, a large percentage of the fine art offered is purchased by collectors residing outside of British Columbia, reflecting the growing worldwide prominence of the Heffel's semi-annual auctions. It is no wonder collectors from across Canada send their important artwork to Heffels for resale.

Today, works by important contemporary and historical Canadian painters, including David Blackwood, Jack Shadbolt, E.J. Hughes, Emily Carr and Lawren Harris, line the walls of the Vancouver gallery's 8,000 square-feet of exhibition space; and in the multi-level viewing space in their Toronto gallery. The Heffels' Montreal office will open for business full time in January 2005.