Canadain Silver Sold

Fellow appraiser Kathi Jablonsky sent me this article from the Toronto Sun on Officials at Rideau Hall and Public Works who were called before the Canadian Parliament to explain why a silver collection was not only sold but sold below market rates. It would have been helpful if an appraiser was involved to advise prior to the sale, if the sale were in fact authorized. Indeed, for future sales this appears to be the case.

The Toronto Sun article is rather short, so I will post in its entirety.

Officials at Rideau Hall and Public Works will be called before a Parliamentary committee to explain why the government auctioned off thousands of dollars worth of antique silver at bargain basement prices.

Senator Serge Joyal, who has tabled a motion calling for changes in the way artifacts and public rooms at Rideau Hall are managed, says he will push for a Senate committee to call witnesses to get to the bottom of the incident.

“There is no doubt that we will ask who is responsible for this and how it happened to wind up in the disastrous situation it finds itself in at the end.”

Joyal’s comments come following the revelation by Sun Media that the government has paid $95,150 to buy back historic antiques from Rideau Hall that it accidentally sold for $3,934.37 on a government online auction site.

The government paid $50,000 to buy back three sterling silver flower baskets it sold for $532 to a unnamed buyer in Luskville, Que. The baskets, presented as wedding gifts to Queen Elizabeth II’s grandparents, were on loan from Buckingham Palace.

A gold-trimmed table mirror was sold for $218.04 and repurchased from a Montreal buyer for $32,000.

Both pieces were repurchased for prices at or near the values determined by professional appraisers.

E-mails provided to Sun Media by the purchaser of the table mirror, suggest officials were under pressure to get the antiques back.

“Give me a call or contact me ref the sell back of the mirror,” wrote Mike Fabbro of Crown Assets Distribution in an e-mail July 29. “The best price you will ever get will be this week as the leadership wants to close the file — either way.”

Public Works Minister Christian Paradis said he was “shocked” by the sale of heritage objects but denied that political pressure resulted in higher prices.

“When we saw the error had been made, we recovered the assets and we said in the future when there are heritage assets from any client department ... we should ask for an evaluation to ensure that such errors don’t happen again.”

Officials balked at paying $500 to get the pieces appraised before the sale. They have since paid $1,500 for appraisals to get them back.

The Office of the Secretary to the Governor General (OSGG), which sent the antiques off to be sold, is paying for the appraisals and the repurchases – a total of $96,650.

NDP MP Charlie Angus said the government lacks a plan to protect heritage assets.

“We don’t know what else would have been sold off at fire sale prices if it hadn’t been through investigative journalism that caught the government out on this.”

Liberal Martha Hall Findlay said the government is quick to spend money to “cover their tracks” but not on infrastructure.

“It’s an appalling waste of taxpayer money.”