Editor’s Note
This article discusses the reportedly anonymized auction of the remaining jewelry from the Heidi Horten estate, following the public controversy that led Christie’s to cancel a planned sale last year. The proceeds are destined for a private museum housing the Horten Collection.
The proceeds from the auctions are also intended to finance the Heidi Horten Collection in a private museum.
Since then, the remaining pieces have apparently been sold as discreetly as possible, as reported by the Austrian newspaper Der Standard. In January, a company from Klagenfurt offered furniture and household items from a Horten villa on Lake Wörthersee online – under the neutral label “Residenzauflösung” (estate clearance). Antiques, arts and crafts, silver cutlery, and a large number of designer handbags are soon to be auctioned at the Nagel auction house in Stuttgart. Here too, according to the newspaper, the asset managers chose an anonymized format under the title “Art & Luxury from Private Ownership”.
The auctions are overshadowed by the Nazi past of German entrepreneur Helmut Horten. He is accused of having profited from the so-called “Aryanization” of Jewish businesses. The criticism did not subside even when Christie’s announced significant donations for Holocaust research.