Ottawa stops sale of $2.2M painting
Ottawa stops sale of $2.2M painting
Calgary Herald
Friday, May 2, 2003
Page: A1 / FRONT
Section: News
Byline: Nick Lewis
Source: Calgary Herald
The decision on whether the most expensive painting
ever sold in Western Canada will leave the country has
become a clash of cultural and commercial values.
Paul Kane's Portrait of Maungwudaus, painted in 1851
as a tribute to the world-renowned Ojibwa performer
and orator, sold at auction in Calgary last December
to an American buyer for $2.2 million.
It has been sitting in a shipping crate inside a city
warehouse since, the sale incomplete because of a federal
export restriction on items deemed of historical
significance to Canadian culture.
The Canadian Cultural Property Review Board says it
will wait until the end of June in hopes that a Canadian
buyer will match the $2.2-million bid from the unnamed
buyer.
"Works that are deemed of national significance and
importance should remain in Canada and we should
give institutions a chance to acquire them," said
Shirley Thompson, review board director. "But if that's
impossible, then the board will issue an export
permit."
Thompson said if an offer is made by a Canadian, the
American purchaser would be turned down for the sale
and the vendor would have the option of accepting the
Canadian bid. Shortly after the painting was sold, an
application was made for its export. That permit was
denied; the second time in three years the same painting
had been denied export to the United States.
An American buyer initially bought the painting at
Sotheby's in Toronto for $523,000 in 1999, but an export
permit was denied because the work was deemed
significant cultural property.
"This time, the board established a delay period of
three months -- the first time was a delay of six months,"
Thompson said. "Because it's the second time, we
understand the importance of the work, but also
understand that the last time around it was not
acquired by another institution.
"So should the delay period end, and negotiations not
begin before the end of the delay period . . . the piece
then can be exported and bought by the American
buyer."
Auctioneer Doug Levis, of Levis Fine Art Auctions &
Appraisals, sold the painting on behalf of an unidentified
consignor. He says a few international buyers might
have been reluctant to bid on the Kane when it was up
because of Canada's cultural restrictions.
"One of the things that I would really resent is some
governmental power saying, 'No. we're not going to allow
that to be exported. We don't care what the value is.
Go away,' " he said. "That is rather inappropriate, in my
opinion.
"The argument for allowing it to be exported is that
there is then a greater awareness of Canadian artwork
outside Canada," he said.
The painting has a twin at the Royal Ontario Museum in
Toronto, and it is uncertain which Kane painted first.
The artist was known for painting some of his subjects
more than once, especially on commission.
Kane, who died in Toronto in 1871, set off on a
two-year journey across Canada in 1846, documenting the
lives of the natives and early settlements. He was the
first Canadian artist to travel across the country, basing
many of his paintings on what he saw out West.
Maungwudaus was a Mississauga Indian who travelled the
world with his Wild West act. Don Smith, a history
professor at the University of Calgary who has studied
him for the past 3o years, said Maungwudaus is not
merely an important Canadian figure, but a North
American one, since he spent a number of years in the
States.
"As a historical figure, he is very important," Smith
said, "because few First Nations people can be
documented with the same detail we can do with him.
Let's get our cultural people to make the judgment on
whether it's vitally important to our heritage."
Kane's Portrait of Maungwudaus is the most expensive
painting ever sold outside Toronto, more than
doubling the $1 million price of an Emily Carr
painting sold in Vancouver in May 2000, which previously held
the record.
Thompson says the painting's cultural value should not
be overshadowed by its commercial value.
"If you're doing a study on the Group of Seven, you
don't want to go to Florida to do it, you want to go to Toronto
or Calgary or Vancouver," she said. "It's important
for school kids, for tourists, for foreigners, for Canadian
adults, to go to our institutions, no matter what part
of the country, to see our heritage."
