The Thomsons and Westons want to buy the Hudson’s Bay charter for $18 million
It’s nice to see two of Canada’s wealthiest families coming together like this
When it was announced last month that the Hudson’s Bay Company would auction off its art collection after filing for creditor protection and closing its retail stores earlier this year, some speculated as to what would happen to other HBC artifacts, namely its Royal Charter.
A press release recently announced that holding companies controlled by the Weston family and media executive David Thomson have submitted a joint offer of $18 million. If it’s accepted, the families would jointly acquire and donate the historic charter, offering an additional $5 million to support its preservation.
Related: The Weston family just bid a whopping $12.5 million on the Hudson’s Bay charter
The royal charter, signed in 1670, is considered the document that legally formed the Hudson’s Bay Company. If the sale is approved, it will be donated and shared by the Archives of Manitoba, the Manitoba Museum, the Canadian Museum of History and the Royal Ontario Museum.
According to the press release, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation is supportive of the offer and of the proposed preservation plan. “A shared custodianship model honouring the rights, interests, and lives of Indigenous peoples offers an opportunity to move beyond historical exclusion and towards a future rooted in partnership and truth and reconciliation,” it said in a letter.
Those paying close attention may recall a mystery bid cited by the court last fall. It turns out to have been from the Thomsons and Westons. The families—two of Canada’s wealthiest—had previously submitted their own competing bids before uniting efforts, putting to rest any rumours of a quiet, seething bidding war between holding companies.
Mystery solved! This is much more civilized.
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
