New York – Christie’s has cancelled the second auction of jewels belonging to the late Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten, following the controversy surrounding the first sale.
“Christie’s has decided not to proceed with further sales of items from the estate of Heidi Horten,” the auction house said in a statement.
The first part of the Heidi Horten sale raised $202 million.
While Christie’s did not release an estimate for the second part of the sale, the auction house acknowledged that it had already sold “the majority of the collection’s value”.
Shortly before the first two-part sale in May, The New York Times published an in-depth report on Horten’s late husband, Helmut Horten, and how he profited when the Nazis forced Jewish business owners to sell their companies for far less than they were worth.
In a statement at the time, Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti said it had never been the auction house’s intention to hide information about Helmut’s “well-documented” history.
There was no mention of Helmut’s Nazi connections in the initial marketing material for the sale, although it was later added.
After the Times report was published, Christie’s said it would donate a significant portion of the final sale proceeds to an organisation that promotes Holocaust research and education, while also noting that proceeds from the jewellery auction were already going to a charity, the Heidi Horten Foundation.
However, a number of Jewish organisations felt this was not enough and called on Christie’s to cancel the sale altogether or to donate a greater proportion of the proceeds to Holocaust education.
The World Federation of Diamond Bourses was among the objectors, sending a letter to François Curiel, chairman of Christie’s Europe, expressing outrage at the sale.
“At a time of Holocaust denial and resurgent anti-Semitism around the world, we find it particularly appalling that a world-renowned auction house would be involved in such a sale,” wrote WFDB President Yoram Dvash.
