New York – Christie’s will auction the jewels of the late Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten this week, billing it as the largest and most valuable private jewellery collection ever sold at auction.
However, a New York Times report on the provenance of Horten and her husband’s wealth has put a damper on the sale.
Helmut Horten was the late German billionaire behind the now defunct Horten’s department store chain.
Heidi met Helmut, more than three decades her senior, when she was 19. They married in 1966 and he died in 1987, leaving her nearly $1 billion.
The Times report details how he built his company by buying businesses from Jewish owners who were forced to sell by the Nazis.
“He laid the foundations of his wealth during the Third Reich by buying companies at fire-sale prices from Jewish business owners under duress,” said David de Jong, author of “Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany’s Richest Dynasties,” told The Times.
After buying a department store from Jewish owners in 1936 at an allegedly below-market price, Helmut is said to have placed an advertisement in a Nazi party newspaper announcing that the store was now under “Aryan ownership”.
Heidi reportedly hired historian Peter Hoeres last year to investigate her husband’s past.
In a report, he concluded that while Helmut had benefited from buying companies from Jewish owners, it was an exaggeration to say he had built his wealth in this way.
Some have taken issue with the report’s characterisation of Helmut as merely a shrewd businessman who took advantage of the situation, rather than someone who supported Nazi ideology.
Stephanie Stephan, a Munich-based journalist and author, told the Times that her father, Reinhold Stephan, was on the board of a Jewish company that was forced to sell to Horten, and claimed that one of the owners was threatened with deportation to a concentration camp if he refused to sell.
Historian Hoeres denied the accuracy of the claim, citing a lack of records to back it up.
In a statement, Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti said: “It was never Christie’s intention to hide information about Mr Horten’s well-documented history, and we have included relevant information in our sales materials and on our website to ensure that the facts are clear to all.”
There was no mention of Helmut’s Nazi connections in the initial marketing materials surrounding the sale.
Cerutti added that Christie’s will donate a “significant” portion of the final sale proceeds to an organisation that promotes Holocaust research and education.
Anthea Peers, president of Christie’s Europe, Middle East and Africa, told The Times that Christie’s was aware of the “painful history” but weighed this against “various factors” and noted that the proceeds would be donated to charity.
The auction house estimates that ‘The World of Heidi Horten’ will fetch $150 million, beating the auction record set by the sale of Elizabeth Taylor’s private collection in 2011 (total: $137.2 million).
The sale of Horten’s jewels will benefit the Heidi Horten Foundation, which supports her art museum, the Heidi Horten Collection in Vienna, and other causes.
“Please know that we have engaged in thoughtful and constructive conversations with those who have reached out to us to openly address their concerns,” Peers said in a statement to National Jeweler.
“At the same time, we appreciate the openness of our clients and colleagues about the way Christie’s is handling the auction and their support for our efforts to increase transparency. ”
Mark Schonwetter, former owner of bridal jewellery company Lieberfarb and co-founder of the Mark Schonwetter Holocaust Education Foundation, shared his perspective with National Jeweler.
“These jewels were purchased with funds obtained by force and coercion during the Nazi regime, which I believe was very wrong,” he said.
While he understands that the money from the sale will go to charity, he said more than a portion of the proceeds should go to Holocaust research and education.
“[Christie’s] should dedicate that money to organisations that are dedicated to educating people not only about the atrocities of the Holocaust, but also to learning from the past so that not only will it never happen again, but that we can live in a better world today.
“Let us use the money that was ultimately made at the expense of those who were persecuted to educate others.
