Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Toronto District Board of Education's Collected Treasure


Tom Thomson

The National Post (May 21, 2010) and the Toronto Sun (May 23, 2010) ran interesting articles on an unlikely art collection. It seems that the Toronto District Board of Education, has been sitting on a hitherto unknown (at least by the public) treasure in art which includes the above work of Tom Thomson, and others by Franklin Carmichael, Emily Carr, Norval Morrisseau, Alex Colville, and Mary Pratt.

Some of the treasures are archeological, such as some contents found beneath Sackville Public School, which came from the home of Thomas Blackburn a fugitive slave.

And, some of the collection is the kind of detritus that are germane to education; eg, old pictures and memorabilia.

Even more interesting to those with an eye for numbers, is that Shelley Falconer, a curator hired by the school board to access the value of the treasure says that it may add up to between $ 7.5 million and $10 million dollars.


Click here to read the National Post article.


Click here to read the story in the Toronto Sun.

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