140-year-old Chilkat blanket bought at auction to return to Atlin, B.C.

To the auction house, it's a "masterwork of technical and aesthetic achievement."

To Wayne Carlick of the Taku River Tlingit, it's "part of a puzzle to help us heal" — and bringing it home to Atlin, B.C., was essential.   

The elaborate, braided Chilkat blanket, estimated to be from the 1880s, was sold on Friday by the prestigious auction house Waddington's. And after a down-to-the-wire bidding war, Carlick had reason to celebrate.

The blanket would be coming home to Atlin — for $38,000.

"[It] gives our culture a much-needed boost," said Carlick, a renowned carver and cultural coordinator for the Taku River Tlingit First Nation, based in Atlin. 

The blanket had been held in an unknown private collection in Ontario before coming up for auction. It could have easily been sold before anybody in Atlin even caught wind of it, had it not been for Peter Wright. 

Wright was born and raised in Atlin, B.C., and now divides his time between Yukon and B.C. He's an avid collector of art by Yukon's Ted Harrison, so he routinely watches for offerings from some of the bigger auction houses.

"That's why I found this — I was looking for Ted Harrison!" Wright said.

When he saw the blanket listed a few weeks ago, he immediately contacted Carlick who was "ecstatic" at the discovery. They started talking about how to purchase it and bring it to Atlin. 

Waddington's, the auction house, estimated a price of about $15,000 to $20,000.

Wright agreed to broker the sale and they set to work raising some money. An online fundraiser brought in nearly $2,000. The Taku River Tlingit also chipped in.

By Thursday — a day before the auction closed — bidding had topped $24,000. A day later it was over $30,000 and Wright found himself in a tense bidding war with someone else. 

Wright said it was "super stressful," entering bids from far away by his phone.

"You're hitting the bid button and there's two seconds left, you know. You don't know if this guy is going to hit it, you don't know if your Internet is fast enough."