TORONTO - Art lovers, historians and those wistful about the fall of Canada’s oldest company are expected in Toronto today, where the most valuable pieces in Hudson’s Bay’s art collection will hit the auction block.

Heffel Fine Art Auction House will host a live sale in the tony Yorkville neighbourhood this afternoon to find new homes for 27 paintings owned by the shuttered, 355-year-old department store.

The star of the auction is expected to be an oil on canvas painting of Marrakech by former British prime minister Winston Churchill. The 1935 piece depicting women standing in the shade of palm trees in Morocco has an estimated value between $400,000 and $600,000.

Other highlights include a Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith painting from 1894 of pedestrians strolling rainy Yonge and King str

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