Lawren Harris, Tom Thomson and Alex Colville paintings smash records at auction

Paintings by famous Canadian artists including Lawren Harris and Tom Thomson garnered record prices on Thursday night at the Heffel Fine Art Auction at theParkHyattHotelin Toronto.

• Alex Colville's Harbour painting sells in auction for $1.6M
• After the Storm, believed to be Tom Thomson's final artwork, set for auction
• Lawren Harris art championed by Steve Martin in new exhibit The Idea of North

Lawren Harris's Mountain and Glacier was the biggest seller of the night, going for $3.9 million andbreaking the previous record for the sale of one of Harris's pieces. It sold way over what was expected, which was a price between $1 million and $1.5 million.

The $3.9 "hammer price" doesn't include a commission that pushes the final cost of the work even higher.

Another of Harris's pieces, Winter Landscape, sold for a hammer price of $3.1 million also one of the night's highest prices. Thatpiece also sold way over the $1.2 to 1.6 million estimated value. Harris paintings are always a big draw, and there may have beenincreased interest in his work given the buzz around a Steve Martin-curated exhibit at the Los Angeles Hammer Museum.

The exhibit will also hit Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario in 2016.

Alex Colville's Harbour sold for a hammer price of $1.6 million, more than doubling the expected price, which was between for $500,000 and $700,000.

After the Storm,by Tom Thomson sold for a hammer price of$1.1 million it had been expected to sell between $500,000 and $700,000. The work is believed to be thefinal painting completed by Thomsonbefore his mysterious death in July 1917.

Other Group of Seven artists' works also fetched jaw-dropping prices well above $150,000, such as works by A.Y. Jackson and J.E.H. MacDonald.

Two ceramics by Emily Carr were also sold, as well as her painting Forest Interior, which went for $200,000. The night also featured some international names, such aspieces by pop-artfavouriteRoy Lichtenstein. HisprintModern Room fetched $120,000,setting an international record for the sale.