Cowley Abbott Canadian Art Auctioneers

Cowley Abbott Canadian Art Auctioneers is an auction house in Toronto, Canada, which holds live and online auctions of Canadian historical, post-war and contemporary artwork, as well as international art. It also sells work through private sales and conducts appraisals and provides art consultancy.
It was founded in 2013 with the name of Consignor Auction House and was rebranded in 2019 as Cowley Abbott Canadian Art Auctioneers.

History

In early 2012, Ryan Mayberry, the son of Winnipeg gallery owner Bill Mayberry, launched the consignor.ca interface. In 2013, Rob Cowley and Lydia Abbott, both veterans with at least 10 years of experience in the Canadian auction field, joined him as managing partners and owners. They launched Consignor Canadian Fine Art at 326 Dundas St West, Toronto, across from the Art Gallery of Ontario, launching a model new to the Canadian market—online-only auctions complemented by a year-round gallery space.

Previously, Cowley (born 1976), president, worked for over 10 years at a Toronto auction house —five years as chief auctioneer—while Abbott (born 1982), vice president, worked at Waddington's and Heffel Auction. Mayberry, vice president technology, continued to work at the Mayberry Fine Art Gallery in Winnipeg as well. The three sales generated 29 broken records for Canadian artists.

Consignor held its first sale online in September 2013. It saw positive growth within its first year, as in May 2014 it broke the record for a Canadian online auction, with Jack Bush's ''Summer Lake'' achieving a price of $310,000. On May 31, 2016, it held its first semi-annual live sale - a success, due in part to the discovery of a Lawren Harris oil sketch, ''Algoma (Algoma Sketch 48)'', in a private collection in Australia which achieved a price of $977,500.

It was rebranded as Cowley Abbott in 2019 with both online and live sales held semi-annually. In the fall of 2020, it presented what was called an online live presentation due to new provincial public health restrictions but by spring 2021, live auctions were normal again and its live platform was "well received" with good results "rolling out quickly".

The start of its private collection sales occurred in fall 2022. The private collection belonged to a couple called "brilliant" in hindsight, who started collecting in the early 1960s but preferred to remain anonymous for the sale. It included a range of pieces, from early historical works to the Group of Seven.

The first private collection auction broke 12 artist records. It had been expected to bring $8–$12 million at auction but Cowley Abbott's two session live auction event, which also included their live auction of important Canadian art in the afternoon, achieved a combined $19.6 million. The Cowley Abbott's two-session spring live auction event on June 8, grossed more than $16 million with ''An Important Private Collection of Canadian Art'' cumulatively achieved a gross total of over $27 million across the two auctions to date with a final installment coming in December 2023. It was on track "to become the highest-grossing private collection of Canadian art ever sold at auction" according to ''Art Daily'' and did indeed fetch $36.6M, the cumulative total in fall 2023, the three sales generating 29 broken records for Canadian artists.

Both parts of the 2023 sales attracted significant attention from the collecting audience. The catalogues, filled with detailed essays by Canada's art historians, were thought to be "treasures for any library". "Cowley Abbott devoted care, appreciation and devotion to these auctions", wrote ''Galleries West'' magazine in the spring of 2023 and this comment was confirmed in fall 2023 by the expertly curated catalogues prepared for the auctions.

Notable sales

* November 2013: Tom Thomson ''Daydreaming'' painting sold for over $170,000 at Consignor Art Auction;
*November 2014: William Kurelek ''Ukrainian Proverb'' painting sold for $41,400 at Consignor Art Auction;
*May 2017: Maud Lewis ''Black Cats'' painting sold for $36,800 at Consignor Art Auction;
*June 2021: David Bowie ''DHead XLVI'' (1997) painting sold for $108,120;
*June 2023: Cowley Abbott is entrusted with the set of four colour screen prints of Queen Elizabeth II from Andy Warhol's ''Reigning Queens'' series by the Winnipeg Art Gallery which deaccessioned them; they were subsequently sold for $936,000.
*fall 2022-fall 2023: ''An Important Private Collection of Canadian Art'' fetches in total $36.6 million,the highest price for a Canadian private collection at auction.

References

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Canadian auction houses
Retail companies established in 2013