Keep in touch, p.20
Keep in Touch, page 20
The Paul Kane auction shone the spotlight on David Silcox and Sotheby’s Canada. But Beverly Schaeffer recalls with delight another first for Sotheby’s: “I had really fought to bring Nova Scotia folk artist Maud Lewis’s little Oxen in Winter into the sale. It was a first for the Nova Scotian painter. Both David and Allan were not in favour of including it, calling it ‘regional art’ and clearly not up to Sotheby’s hallowed standards. But I pushed; I felt her work would become important. It sold respectably, selling at forty-eight hundred dollars. Little would any of us have dreamed that Mauds would be selling for ten times that much in less than a decade.”10 Later in his life, David reminisced about what he called “the Kane phenomenon,” describing buyer Ken Thomson as “blowing his stack” at Sotheby’s delivery charge for the 31-by-22-inch painting (50.9 by 78.7 cm) to his home. “I brought him a $175 food basket and a slip-cased copy of my David Milne book to try to calm him down.”11
Scene in the Northwest: Portrait of John Henry Lefroy by Paul Kane set a record for the sale of a Canadian work of art.
In the euphoric days after the Kane auction, David Silcox would come to chastise himself for treating his introduction to the multi-million-dollar world of art-selling as a “fantasy.” “I think I viewed the Kane extravaganza as the blueprint for future high value Canadian paintings at auction — what a wonderful business to be in. You just get a few wonderful works of art together and success is unavoidable. It didn’t take long after the euphoric moment to realize how much more hard work was needed to achieve that level of success again.”12 “Hard work” that included keeping in touch with your competitors.
David made it his business to occasionally take a stroll from Sotheby’s offices on Hazelton Avenue to King Street — there to visit his friends at competitor Joyner Waddington. Young Robert Cowley, today President of Cowley Abbott in Toronto, began his career in 2000 in client services at Joyner. As such, he would, from time to time, welcome the esteemed visitor to the premises. Rob’s memories of chats with David Silcox are insightful: “David spoke about art and art history with pure joy and excitement. It was infectious. I was early in my career when I first met David and he reminded me how lucky we were to have the opportunity to work in this field. He was also incredibly helpful and collegial, sometimes a rarity in the art industry. His personal relationships with our celebrated artists, like Harold Town, brought those individuals to life. One of my favourite stories David told was of him first meeting Town at Hart House and Town challenging him to a fight! Then there were anecdotes about him sailing with his great friend Christopher Pratt in Newfoundland. It was like you almost were there within the stories he would regale you with so enthusiastically.”13
Chapter Fifty-Four Such a Good Boy: Treats and Surprises
In 2006, approaching his seventies, David Silcox had surpassed his target of remaining in one job for only “five or six years, tops.” Firmly ensconced as President of Sotheby’s Canada, which was holding its own in the volatile fine art business, he basked in his successes along the road of life: first Arts Officer of the Canada Council, then Director of Cultural Affairs for Metro Toronto, Assistant Deputy Minister in the Department of Communications for Canada, Deputy Minister of Culture and Communications for Ontario, and bestselling author of books on Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, Christopher Pratt, and David Milne.
In early 2006, a telephone call from Ottawa capped his lifetime of service to culture in Canada. He, David Silcox, had been nominated to receive the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honour. It would be awarded at a ceremony at Ottawa’s Rideau Hall on April 6, 2006, with formal investment into the Order on February 9, 2007. At the glittering ceremony, attended by honorees, guests, and officials, David’s services to his country were read out:
David Silcox is driven by the belief that artists play a critical role in defining Canadian culture. President of Sotheby’s Canada, he has turned the auction house into a major force in the national art market. As a senior administrator in provincial and federal governments, he established cultural policies and programs such as the Art Bank at the Canada Council for the Arts, which brought improved opportunities, support and recognition to our artists. Moreover, he has received accolades for the biography that he wrote and the catalogue raisonné that he co-authored on painter David Milne. Through these works and his other books on prominent Canadian painters, he has made an important and lasting contribution to the study of Canadian art.14
More honours followed. In 2007, David Silcox joined seven other distinguished Canadians in receiving the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts. Again taking place at Rideau Hall in Ottawa and presided over by Canadian Governor General Michaëlle Jean, David’s citation honoured him for “his outstanding contribution to the world of art throughout his 40-year career.” The jury described his contributions as “remarkable and with purpose,” and noted his efforts in paving the way for young artists.15 In acknowledging the honour, David said, “The world of art chose me, in a way. I fell into it. I never got a job I applied for. But I was able to do things I enjoyed doing and was always amazed to get paid for doing it.”16
Over the coming years, more honours and awards shone light on the vibrant septuagenarian, including an honorary doctor of letters from his alma mater, Victoria College at the University of Toronto, and another from the University of Windsor. Over a lifetime of service to the arts and his country, David was honoured with a total of twenty-two distinguished awards. “The Order of Canada indeed was the top honour,” offered Linda Intaschi. “He was terribly proud of the others too, but he loved that OC pin! If we were travelling, he was so honoured when people noticed it and complimented him for receiving it.”17
David Silcox with Governor General Michaëlle Jean on David’s appointment to the Order of Canada, 2007.
Behind the honours and acknowledgement, there was still art to be bought and sold at Sotheby’s Canada, with President David Silcox firmly guiding the ship. Still, five years would pass before Sotheby’s had another success worthy of the front page. As had been the case with the Paul Kane acquisition, an out-of-country telephone call — this one from the state of Vermont — initiated a headline-making sequence of events in 2007. David told the story with the Silcox bent for drama: “It began with a gentleman dropping dead on a sidewalk in Zurich, Switzerland, on a Monday. On Tuesday, the executors of his estate phoned to say they’d been left instructions (by the deceased man) saying, ‘I have a collection of Canadian art which has some value and you should probably call Sotheby’s in Toronto.’”18
The story behind the call was later told by the Star’s Peter Goddard. Apparently, the Sotheby’s call was on behalf of a recently deceased gentleman, who was wealthy former Montreal resident and art collector Michael Dunn. In the late 1970s, Dunn had become wary of the rise of the Parti Québécois and had departed la Belle Province for the wilds of Lake Memphremagog in rural Vermont, just south of the Canadian-American border. Heading south with Dunn were three hundred original Canadian artworks, including a number of paintings by the Group of Seven and several treasures by Emily Carr, Cornelius Krieghoff, and other celebrated Canadian painters.19
The call to Sotheby’s President David Silcox from Dunn’s solicitors came out of the blue and piqued the boss’s interest. David asked about the signatures on the paintings. “Well,” came the reply, “one guy’s named Varley, somebody named Harris, and I see what looks like Carr on a couple of others.”20 In a 2023 interview, Leah Carey, who at the time had recently been hired as Sotheby’s Vice-President, recalled learning about the windfall: “David came careening full-tilt around a corner, more excited than I’d ever seen him. ‘I need to make a trip to the U.S. to pick up some art. Would you come with me?’” Taken by surprise, Leah asked when. “‘Tomorrow,’ he answered, over his shoulder. And he kept on going.”21
Leah explained the urgency of David’s plans: “Apparently there was another art dealer in Montreal who had also been contacted by the deceased man’s lawyer about the paintings. So it wasn’t a fait accompli that Sotheby’s was getting them. But in David’s ever-working mind, they were already ours. He better get on the scene immediately before anyone else got their fingers in the pie.” The next morning, David Silcox and Leah Carey caught a flight to Montreal. There, they rented a U-Haul van to bring the paintings back into Canada. Leah laughed. “That’s just the way David thought. Of course, the paintings were Sotheby’s and he was ready to bring them back!”
An assertive driver at the best of times, David wasted no time on the road. “The house where we were headed was way out in the Vermont countryside,” recalled Leah. “And the gravel roads leading there were winding — up and down, around corners, at full tilt — David having no idea what was around this bend, or at the bottom of that hill. He just roared on. I was hanging on for my dear life.” Arriving at the remote destination, a cabin-like structure nestled deeply in the Vermont hills, David and Leah were met by the deceased man’s representative, who invited them inside. In a later interview, David recounted the scene that met them inside the ramshackle cottage: “It was like a hermit had lived there … pretty messy, things piled in corners, piles of paper and clothing, stuff stacked all over the place. We went into the living room and there were seven Maurice Cullens on the walls.”
Each room offered more surprises. Then the Toronto pair found “the Prize,” propped behind an easy chair on the floor of one of the bedrooms. It was a Tom Thomson, an 8.5-by-10.5-inch sketch (21.5 by 26.6 cm) that David later described as “one of the most startling of Thomson’s various treatments of the fall colours of Algonquin Park … and probably from his last autumn, just prior to his untimely death in 1917.”22 David later stressed the rarity of the find, which was titled Algonquin Park. “This remarkably vibrant sketch [had] never been published or exhibited, as far as is known, [and had] been sequestered in a very private collection outside the country for decades.”23
Ultimately, the Sotheby’s treasure-finders identified over a hundred paintings that were of national significance. In addition to the Thomson, there were a number of other Group of Seven works, by Lawren Harris, J.E.H MacDonald, A.Y. Jackson, and Frederick Varley. Work by British Columbia artist Emily Carr was also unearthed among the clutter of the home. “Most rooms we walked into there was art here, art there, art everywhere. And they were treasures,” remembers Leah, with wonder. “An experience I will never forget.” As negotiations for the paintings continued, Leah recalls her boss’s cool and calm demeanour. “If he ever felt cautious in earning the trust of the deceased man’s executor, he showed none of it. We sat down at the kitchen table and he and David talked business. Never pushy, just quietly and convincingly confident, David impressed the man, who was soon ready to talk terms.” In due course, the family’s lawyer was called, and legal papers were signed. “We wrapped up everything that we were buying in bubble wrap, stacked them safely in the back of the U-Haul, and headed north.”24
Laden with their treasure trove, Silcox and Carey aimed for Canadian customs to declare their multi-million-dollar purchase. And then, the driver got lost! Linda Intaschi recalls hearing of the humorous off-road adventure: “David took a wrong road and realized that he had crossed the border into Quebec without passing through customs. So, he had to drive back into Vermont and find the main road so that he could declare the work properly!”25 Figures revealed that the Sotheby’s President paid over $127,000 in tax to border officials.
* * *
With news of the find, the Canadian press was off to the races. Anticipation ran high for an upcoming event at Sotheby’s on March 20, 2007, where the foundlings would be auctioned. The pre-sale estimate of Thomson’s Algonquin Park alone ranged from four hundred to six hundred thousand dollars. Rivalling the frenzy of the record-breaking Paul Kane circus of 2002, Ritchies was full to overflowing when the Vermont cache went on the auction block. Featured as item #35 in the 277-lot collection, Algonquin Park was heralded in the Sotheby’s catalogue as “one of the painter’s miracles of vision and execution … revealing the artist’s genius for handling paint …”26 Listed early in the evening’s proceedings, Algonquin Park sparked spirited bidding, hammering in at $635,000, including the buyer’s premium. The identity of the purchaser was not revealed, but all signs again pointed to magnate and art collector Ken Thomson. Sotheby’s Canada was again on top of the world — for a while.
* * *
The July 2009 announcement that Sotheby’s Canada had severed ties with Ritchies, the auctioneer firm, was a media bombshell. The dissolution came after Ritchies, which had hosted Sotheby’s twice-yearly auctions, as well as paying consignors for works sold, had failed to meet a deadline to pay its clients. Neither had they returned unsold art to its consignors.27 At least one Sotheby’s senior employee, Canadian art specialist Beverly Schaeffer, admitted to being unsurprised at the Ritchies downfall. In a 2023 interview for this book, she admitted, “I’d never trusted Ritchies Auctions President, Ira Hopmeyer, from the beginning and this was it for me. I resigned.”28
After the dissolution, Sotheby’s Toronto carried on, holding their art auctions at the Royal Ontario Museum. But successes were few. On December 4, 2009, Sotheby’s auctioned a prized Jean-Paul Riopelle, which had been estimated to sell for between $800,000 and $1.2 million but was passed over in bidding. An outstanding Tom Thomson, Early Snow in Algonquin Park, suffered the same embarrassment.
President David Silcox’s post-sale comments, usually euphoric, lacked their usual tone: “Not everything went as high as I thought it might.” Looking to the future, he predicted a change in the public’s buying tastes: “The contemporary area turned out to be a wonderful surprise.… I think that’s maybe an indicator of where things are going to be in the next three or four or five years.”29 Although million-dollar sales did return to Sotheby’s Canada in the next four years, they were not enough to keep the concern afloat. The 2013 news that they would cease their auction business and operate in Canada as a high-end real estate broker came as little surprise to insiders. (Sotheby’s had franchised its real estate business in 2004 to Realty Holding.)
Facing the media, President David Silcox put on a positive face, insisting that Sotheby’s was “not abandoning the Canadian market.” He said, “[Private sales] are the growth area of this business; it’s not the auction part that’s profitable. We want to operate only at the high level with our highest transacting clients and we’ll be more profitable because of it.”30 The then Vice-President of Sotheby’s Canada, Linda Rodeck, added that Sotheby’s Canada would henceforth “focus on sourcing important international works held by Canadian collectors for Sotheby’s salerooms in New York, London, Paris and Hong Kong.” She put the decision to abandon auction sales purely in economic terms: “Sotheby’s Canada is not viable in Sotheby’s world-wide market. The Canadian share of Sotheby’s $7 billion market is only $10,000,000. When a single Mark Rothko sells for $75 million you can see how the dollars don’t stack up globally.”31
With the closing of Sotheby’s art auction business, David Silcox, now seventy-six, retired from the nine-to-five life. Almost with surprise, he noted that he had remained at Sotheby’s for twelve years: “Longer than I had remained in any job I’d had.”32 Having declared early in his professional career that “short employment” was his style, the length of his buy-and-sell period is intriguing. More typical of the man was his retention of the sense of humour that had sustained him over the hills and valleys of a public life. In his unpublished book, “Canadian Art at Auction,” David offered a key takeaway from his years steering the good ship Sotheby’s: “Red outsells green 3–1, 9 times out of 10.”
Personal notes written late in David’s life reveal his frustration, bordering on anger, at an organization that he felt had shown “insolence, and arrogance of head office over new location, budgets, personnel …”33 In 2024, Linda Intaschi also discussed David’s feelings toward his former employer. “David had never liked the ‘U.S. branch-plant’ status of Sotheby’s Canada and what he saw as micromanagement from New York. He was never a corporate guy. But he had loved the clients, talking about art to a wide variety of people, and seeing what people had on their walls across the country. The art and the challenge of a new career generally made up for any downside.”
Part Twelve Of a Sense of Fun
(2010–2023)
Chapter Fifty-Five “Not Old”
A senior citizen at age seventy-six when he closed the door to his Sotheby’s office, David had no intention of retiring from the arts and culture world, which, over the past five decades, had called and sustained him. Board and committee work continued. He remained on Sotheby’s board of directors and on the University of Windsor acquisitions committee and retained his roles at the Museums Foundation of Canada, Art Canada Institute, and the Creative Trust. He was also still the Honorary Governor of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. This was coupled with his work as executor of the estate of Harold Town.
Travel also filled any leisure time. With David’s timetable now flexible and Linda able to schedule vacation time from Mirvish Productions, the couple set out on regular adventures: to Africa, Canada’s Arctic, Malaysia, and the Caribbean. Alternating between trips as a couple and with travel-worthy friends, this globetrotting life was David’s dream come true. Linda reflects, “The outdoors was as much of David’s life as any of his jobs.” Once a Queen’s Scout …”
