Editor’s Note
Following a record-breaking sale in May, Christie’s has cancelled a planned November auction of further items from the Heidi Horten collection. The decision comes amid ongoing public scrutiny regarding the origins of the late collector’s wealth.
In May, Christie’s in Geneva achieved a record sum of approximately $200 million through the auction of jewelry from the estate of the “department store queen” Heidi Horten. However, a further auction of additional precious items from Horten’s collection, which had been announced for November, will not take place. The company announced this in a statement.
Prior to the first auction, the “New York Times” published the well-documented but apparently little-known history in the USA of the fortune of Heidi Horten’s first husband, department store entrepreneur Helmut Horten. During the Nazi era, he had profited from the expropriation of Jewish competitors. When Heidi Horten’s opulent jewelry collection came up for auction, the outrage among Jewish interest groups, particularly in the United States, was immense, and the protest was sharp, even though a portion of the auction proceeds was to flow into projects for Holocaust education and the remaining profit would benefit the foundation that also operates the private museum housing Heidi Horten’s art collection.
says Guillaume Cerutti, the CEO of Christie’s, in the statement. Nevertheless, the original announcement of the auction had not mentioned the burdensome history. The criticism of the auction had “deeply affected” Christie’s, and they would continue to reflect on the case, it is stated.