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This article was published 30/4/2012 (3075 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has put a stop to his department's sale of paintings by some of the most famous and sought-after Canadian artists, including Riopelle, Borduas and Kurelek.

But 21 of the 22 valuable pieces that hung in embassies, consulates and official residences around the world now sit in a storage facility in nearby Gatineau, Que.

"La Cath�dral enguirland�e", 1951, oil on canvas, by renowned Quebec painter Paul-Emile Borduas is shown in a handout photo. It is among 20 valuable pieces of art the Department of Foreign Affairs has designated for sale. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada

The sale, the first of its kind in the department's history, was part of wide-ranging budget cuts involving the closure of some offices and belt-tightening across the foreign service.

Some pieces were purchased when the artists were up-and-coming, collected by various missions since the 1930s.

A Jean Paul Lemieux canvas called "Girl with Fur Hat" was bought directly from the artist in 1963 for just $600. The department estimates its current value at $300,000, though another Lemieux recently fetched $2.34 million at auction.

The plan was to sell the art to museums and public institutions, but at a 30 per cent discount.

The move was in the works for two years, part of a strategy to cut costs. Details were outlined in documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

A memo last summer showed the sale plan was well in motion.

"All but one of the 22 pieces of art have been gathered in storage in (Ottawa)," the manager of the department's fine-art collection wrote in August.

"The one outstanding painting to be returned is coming from Tunisia in September."

The department had been cagey about the sale, and last week told The Canadian Press only that "none of the 20 pieces have been sold or given away." Questions about the status of the sale, and where the art wound up, went unanswered.

But on Monday, after The Canadian Press published details of the plan, Baird's spokesman said the entire sale is off.

"We have no plans to sell these paintings," said Joseph Lavoie. "It was a proposal which the current minister has decided not to execute."

A government source said Baird is a fan of fine art, and was concerned that past taxpayer investments be respected.

On Monday afternoon, an official at the Department of Foreign Affairs said 21 of the 22 pieces of art are being held at a storage facility in Gatineau, noting they "represent a very small fraction of the department's collection."

The 22nd piece, by William Kurelek, is part of a travelling retrospective of his work.

The value of the 22 identified pieces was set at $4 million. The proposal was supposed to return $3 million to the department annually between 2011-2014, and then $1 million each year after that.

"The DFAIT new business model includes a new approach to the management of the art collection," wrote one assistant deputy minister in September 2010.

"While endorsing the current policy objectives of showcasing emerging and contemporary Canadian art at our Embassies, High Commissions and Official Residences abroad, to ensure risks are managed and to make annual purchases self-sustaining, as well as part of a savings initiative, a selection of pieces from the collection will be offered for sale."

The department created a furor in Quebec last summer when it removed two paintings by modern master Alfred Pellan from the lobby of its Ottawa headquarters and replaced them with a photo portrait of the Queen. Those two paintings were also slated for sale, but were subsequently removed from the list.

The other pieces packed away and put into storage include a Jean-Paul Riopelle oil painting acquired in 1959 for $900, currently valued at $300,000. The records suggest it had hung in Washington, D.C.

Riopelle's daughter Yseult, who maintains the Riopelle catalogue, told The Canadian Press she was unaware the painting even existed.

Also included in the proposed sale and later stored away were two paintings by Riopelle's mentor Paul-Emile Borduas, an untitled piece and a 1953 work entitled "La Cathedral enguirlandee," the piece that had hung in the embassy in Tunisia.

A Concordia University art historian, Francois-Marc Gagnon, said the Riopelle might fetch $1 million at auction. Collectors around the world salivate over Riopelle's striking works of abstract expressionism.

"They are very important, Borduas and Riopelle in particular, because they were at the beginning of the movement of non-figurative, abstract art across Canada," says Gagnon, who is the founding director of the Gail and Stephen Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art.

"In that sense, they're very important to the history of art in Canada for the development of modern art here. They were people who lived in Europe, and in the case of Borduas, even in the United States. They made Canadian art known around the world, both in Paris and in New York. For our history, they're people who had a very significant contribution, there's no doubt."

One of the most valuable pieces in the proposed sale is by landscape artist Clarence Alphonse Gagnon, valued at $500,000.

Painters from outside Quebec on the list included Jack Bush, Edwin Holgate, David Milne and Kurelek.

The piece by Kurelek, called "Our World Today," depicts a bar on fire. Kurelek, a Ukrainian-Canadian from the Prairies, depicted the lives of many cultural groups across Canada. Many Canadians might be familiar with his illustrations in "A Prairie Boy's Summer" and "A Prairie Boy's Winter."

David Tuck of the Wynick/Tuck Gallery says embassies have often been the main place for Canadian artists to gain recognition, because Canada doesn't have the same number of wealthy museums and collectors that countries such as the U.S. do.

"It's very disappointing to see their commitment diminishing, and I think it's frankly counterproductive over the long term," said Tuck. "The balance of payments ... on cultural exports is huge a source of revenue for developed cultural economies and it's an area where Canada has lots of work to do still, and I think this is a backward step."

The records make clear that bureaucrats inside Foreign Affairs had been uncomfortable with the sale.

"You know my views about privatizing public goods which I continue to firmly believe and have expressed," wrote one public servant.

"However, I will also support Deputy decisions as long as they are realistic and do not put the integrity of our programs at risk."

Others repeatedly underlined to higher-ups in the department that their vision of recouping millions by selling to museums was unrealistic. One bureaucrat warned about negative publicity.

"In view of the public reaction and attention that was created by the simple removal of two paintings from the lobby of the Lester B. Pearson building at the end of June, we should reconsider the risk involved with the proposed sale of DFAIT art assets," the bureaucrat wrote.

"It might be controversial and potentially embarrassing to the government to announce that they are now available for sale."

Although Foreign Affairs initially provided no details on the proposed sale, internal communications plans make a few elements clear.

One is that the department did not want to have to resort to auctioning the pieces off. It also will not sell any artwork that was donated to the department.

And the department emphasizes, at least privately, that its policy is to support emerging and contemporary artists — it does not have the same sort of historical mandate as a museum.

The 494 "high-value" pieces held by the department were appraised at a market value of approximately $18.7 million, according to the records. The entire collection, including donation pieces and other lower-value items, is valued at $35 million.

The government was forced to buy back china and silverware from Rideau Hall for $100,000 after it had sold them for $4,000 on a government surplus auction website in 2009. The Sun newspaper chain reported that some of the items included three sterling silver flower baskets on loan from Buckingham Palace.

The artwork held by the Department of Foreign Affairs is also considered the property of the Queen.