"Haida Raven" by the Estate of Bill Reid

Gold Print, framed.  There is a brisk market of Bill Reid prints and original works of art sold in the market place, with prices ranging from hundreds of dollars and into the millions.

Bill Reid has the distinction of receiving the highest price ever paid for a Canadian work of art; $3 million CDN, for the “Spirit of Haida Gwaii”; the Jade Canoe installed at the Vancouver International Airport in 1994.

Since 2006 the record price for this artist at auction is $1,211,248 CDN for Killer Whale, sold at Heffel Vancouver in 2016.

Bill Reid has been featured in articles for Art Market Monitor, Canadian Art and The Globe and Mail. The most recent article is Bill Reid Gallery Celebrates 25-Year Living Legacy of Bill Reid with Canadian Premiere of Group Exhibition written for ArtDaily in April 2023.

Reid said that "art can never be understood, but can only be seen as a kind of magic, the most profound and mysterious of all human activities. With that magic, one of the deepest mysteries is the art of the Northwest Coast-a unique expression of an illiterate people, re- sembling no other art form except perhaps the most sophisticated calligraph".

Reid is credited with bringing the art of the North West Coast people to the attention of the world. He was the first Northern artist born in the twentieth century to comprehend the formal rules of this complex intellectualized art tradition, the principles of which had been lost to the few remaining Northwest Coast People or Haida artists who practiced their craft in argillite and silver.Bill Reid (1920-1998) was an acclaimed master goldsmith, carver, sculptor, writer, broadcaster, mentor and community activist. Reid was born in Victoria, BC to a Haida mother and an American father with Scottish German roots, and only began exploring his Haida roots at the age of 23. This journey of discovery lasted a lifetime and shaped Reid’s artistic career.

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