Overview
- Coastal Boats Near Sidney, BC by E. J. Hughes realised C$5,701,250 at Heffel in Toronto on Thursday, May 21, 2026, making it the highest auction price ever for a British Columbia artist.
- Emily Carr University of Art + Design consigned the 1948 painting after it had been donated by collectors Peter and Joanne Brown, and the proceeds were earmarked for student awards.
- The final price more than tripled the work’s presale high estimate of C$1.75m and surpassed Hughes’s previous secondary‑market record set at Heffel in 2025.
- Heffel’s two spring sessions together brought C$22.4m with a 93.75% sell‑through rate by lot, showing robust bidding even as total proceeds lagged last November’s auction season.
- Long exhibited at major Canadian institutions and featured on a key monograph cover, the painting’s sale underlines both the cultural cachet of West Coast art and the growing role of high‑value sales in funding art education.