Hudson's Bay looks to auction off royal charter that launched company 355 years ago | CBC News

Hudson's Bay has asked a court to allow it to put the royal charter that launched the company 355 years ago on the auction block, along with its trove of art and historical artifacts.

The collapsing department store chain known as Canada's oldest company filed a motion with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice late Thursday asking for permission to sell 1,700 pieces of art and more than 2,700 artifacts.

The company has been seeking buyers for the items since last month but now wants to pull the art and artifacts from that process to ensure they get "care, consideration and expertise required" and "can be fully prioritized through a separate process facilitated by a fine art auction house." 

Court documents say the move was prompted in part by "government and quasi-government institutions, museums, universities, and high net worth individuals acting on their own accord or as potential benefactors to certain Canadian museums and institutions."