Controversial jewelry collection reaches record of almost R$ 1 billion

Hundreds of jewels that once belonged to the late Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten totaled 176 million Swiss francs ($300 million) and became the most expensive private jewelery collection ever to appear at auction.

The sale broke a record set more than a decade ago by Elizabeth Taylor’s collection, whose jewelry fetched nearly $116 million in New York in 2011.

Last week’s auction was held despite concerns raised by Jewish groups about where Horten’s wealth came from. The late art collector, who Forbes reported had a net worth of around $3 billion when she died in June last year, inherited $1 billion from her first husband, Helmut Horten, after his death in 1987. According to Christie’s, the German businessman bought businesses sold under duress during the Nazi era.

The American Jewish Committee asked that the auction be suspended until “a serious effort” was made to investigate the source of the Horten wealth. In a statement published earlier this month, the group described Helmut Horten as one of the “unscrupulous businessmen” who “took advantage of the Aryanization laws and the desperate needs of Jews fleeing the Nazis”.

In an open letter to Christie’s, the Jewish human rights organization Simon Wiesenthal Center said it had “demanded” that the sale be stopped. The Holocaust Educational Trust told the UK’s Jewish Chronicle that the auction was a “real insult to the victims of the Holocaust”.

In an online sales catalog, Christie’s said the source of Horten’s wealth was “a matter of public record” and that her ex-husband’s business practices are “well documented”. The auction house added that it would make a “significant contribution” from the proceeds of the sale to organizations that promote Holocaust research and education.

Christie’s also said proceeds will go to the Heidi Horten Foundation, which supports the Heidi Horten Collection, the museum she founded in Vienna, Austria, before her death, as well as medical research, child welfare and other philanthropic causes.

The two-day sale, which took place last week at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva, Switzerland, was accompanied by an online auction that ended on Monday. Another online auction will take place in November. Horten’s collection featured over 700 jewels, which Christie’s initially predicted would sell for over $150 million.

But while the collection beat estimates, several of the big-ticket items underperformed. The most valuable lot, a Cartier ruby ​​and diamond ring in the color “pigeon blood”, fetched just over 13 million Swiss francs (R$ 71.65 million), although Christie’s expected bids of up to 18 million Swiss francs (almost R$100 million). A 90-carat “Briolette of India” diamond necklace by jeweler Harry Winston also underperformed, selling for CHF6.3 million.

Elsewhere, however, a Bulgari diamond ring more than doubled its high estimate to fetch 9.1 million Swiss francs (R$50 million). Other jewelry for sale included items from luxury names like Tiffany and Van Cleef & Arpels.

Horten was introduced to the fascination of beautiful objects at a very young age, as her father was a jeweler. Her love for jewelry and art deepened after her marriage, according to the auction house.

She came to own a variety of decorative, modern and contemporary works of art, some of which are housed in her museum.

“Heidi Horten’s World is the collection of a lifetime,” Rahul Kadakia, Christie’s international head of jewelry, said in a press release ahead of the sale. “From Bulgari to Van Cleef & Arpels, from a small piece of personal memory to Briolette from India, this is a collector’s dream.

“Building from extraordinary pieces she acquired in the 1970s and 1980s, Ms. Horten has continued to grow and curate his sophisticated collection, eloquently blending vintage and modern designs from the world’s leading jewelers that today represent some of the finest examples ever to hit the market,” added Kadakia.