Public access to Hudson Bay Company artifacts 'absolutely crucial,' Manitoba history prof says

Museums, galleries and other archival institutions will likely need some help, if they want to buy Hudson's Bay art or artifacts.

Historians say most public organizations don't have the kind of cash they'd need to easily purchase items belonging to the faltering, 355-year-old company.

"The reality is archival institutions in Canada do not have money," said Cody Groat, an assistant processor of history and Indigenous studies at Western University in London, Ont.

"There's chronic underfunding for cultural heritage across the country. It's existed for many years."

Groat's remarks come on the heels of news last week that Hudson's Bay, Canada's oldest company, will ask a court on Thursday for permission to auction off its 1,700 pieces of art and more than 2,700 artifacts.

The fur-trading-business-turned-department-store chain has not said what items will be available beyond the royal charter Hudson's Bay was granted by King Charles II in 1670. The charter established the business but also gave it rights to a vast swath of land spanning most of the country and extraordinary power over trade and Indigenous relations for decades more.

A source familiar with its collection, who was not authorized to speak publicly, told The Canadian Press last week that paintings, point blankets, paper documents and even collectible Barbie dolls are part of the trove.

'A number of parties' expressed interest in collection: HBC

While it's hard to put a price on history, Groat expects some of the buzziest items Hudson's Bay has to generate large sums.

The charter alone "could go to auction for quite a significant amount of money," exceeding the "very low" acquisition budgets Groat said institutions have.

"There has been some precedent back in the day, for example, where some archival institutions have tried to pool resources together to try to keep collections in Canada, but it's not a common practice because there's just not much money that exists," he said.

Adele Perry, a University of Manitoba history professor, agreed with Groat's assessment of the situation facing institutions that may be interested in Hudson's Bay assets.

Most of these organizations "run very close to the wire as far as their funding goes," so she suspects they'd have to turn to donors for help.

While several museums did not respond to queries from The Canadian Press asking whether they'd want any Bay art or artifacts, many institutions appear to be watching the company's creditor protection case and two processes already underway to sell of its assets.

"A number of parties, including government and quasi-governmental institutions, museums, universities, and high net-worth individuals acting on their own accord or as potential benefactors to certain Canadian museums and institutions, have expressed interest in the art collection" as part of one of the sales processes, said Adam Zalev, managing director of Hudson's Bay's financial adviser Reflect Advisors, in an affidavit filed Thursday.

"Several parties also expressed their desire to have the art collection made available for public viewing in a museum or other public institution."

Perry thinks public access to whatever Hudson's Bay items are up for grabs is "absolutely crucial" because of the authority the company was given by the Crown "to act as a kind of colonizer and a kind of government."

"We generally expect that the records of governments are accountable to the people who live within those places and are a part of those histories," she said. "So I think it's really [important that] we hold the Hudson's Bay Company, and whoever hands it comes into, accountable."

She feels public access to assets is even more important in instances where there are not duplicates of documents or photographs or text of the works are not available elsewhere, such as at the Manitoba Museum. The Bay donated much of the 27,000 items the Winnipeg institution houses in 1994.

Much of that collection was given the UNESCO Memory of the World distinction, which is meant to safeguard documents of historical and cultural importance but does not keep them from being destroyed or sold, in 2007. Groat recalled the charter did not get the distinction because the company continued to own it.

The Canadian Advisory Committee for Memory of the World "has independently expressed to HBC its desire that the Charter be transferred to a public archival institution to ensure its long-term preservation and access," UNESCO Canadian Commission spokesperson Vanessa Poulin-Gladu said in an email.

Yet Groat said it's possible the document will not find a public, nor even Canadian home.

"There is zero legislative mechanism in the country to keep this charter out of private hands at this point in time," he said, though Canada has cultural export policies that can delay a sale to a foreign buyer.