Jewelry belonging to Heidi Horten, until recently the richest Austrian, has left an auction in Geneva. The woman who died in 2022 was a lover not only of expensive rings and brooches, but also of art, which she showed to the public in the first private museum in Austria. However, questions of morality raise questions about the origin of her fortune: Heidi Horten’s husband belonged to the NSDAP and took possession of the property of German and Austrian Jews. He also used forced labor during the war.
Brooches, rings, pearl necklaces and bracelets, studded with diamonds and rubies, designed by luxury jewelery houses such as Bulgari, Cartier, Tiffany, Harry Winston, were put up for auction organized by auction house Christie’s in Geneva. The jewels have an estimated value of 136 million euros and belong to Heidi Horten, born in 1941, an Austrian billionaire and art collector.
Jewelry of the richest Austrian woman left the auction after her death
In addition to expensive jewelry, Heidi Horten also collected contemporary art, which is exhibited in the Heidi Horten Collection, Austria’s first private museum. Shortly after its opening in 2022, the collector and billionaire passed away, causing her jewelry to be put up for auction.
The woman came to her fortune thanks to her husband and businessman Helmut Horten, an active member of the NSDAP in 1937-1944. He used “Aryanization”, that is, the expropriation of Jewish property after Adolf Hitler came to power. The Jews were deprived of their business and property. In 1937, Horten took over the Gebrüder Alsberg department store in Duisburg in the Ruhr area, after which he fired all Jewish employees. In the years that followed, Helmut Horten purchased several more department stores from Jewish owners and amassed a considerable fortune, as we read in Deutsche Welle.
He also used forced laborers in his factories to save on wages.
Questionable report clearing Helmut Horten’s name
In order to clear the name of the deceased spouse, Heidi Horten commissioned in 2021 to prepare a report on the transactions he carried out. This shows that the businessman did not resort to blackmail, and the Jewish merchants had to voluntarily transfer ownership of their shops. However, living witnesses of those events remember this differently. Stephanie Stefan, whose father was a member of the board of the Gebrüder Gerzon clothing company, testified that Horten threatened the Jewish owners with prison and a concentration camp. Moreover, it is difficult to assume that Jewish entrepreneurs gave away their assets out of a sense of duty. Even if they were not beaten, they agreed to the conditions put forward, because they knew that the opposition would not do anything. Thus, Horten skillfully took advantage of a number of opportunities for enrichment.
Since the report was commissioned by the wife of a Nazi, the conclusions of its authors should be treated with great caution.
Helmut Horten, king of department stores
After the war, Helmut Horten was arrested by the Allies and spent a year and a half in internees. He was released in early 1948 and immediately returned to business. Already at the end of the same year, he opened a department store in Duisburg, and then so quickly opened others that he was recognized as the German “king of department stores.”
He paid partial compensation to Jewish families whose department stores he took over during the Nazi era, but otherwise kept quiet about his commercial activities between 1933 and 1945. In the 1960s, he married Heidi, who was 32 years his junior, and they lived a luxurious life together. Hellmuth died in 1987 and his widow inherited the estate.
Over the years, she has collected German Expressionist works, which she acquired with Helmut Horten, as well as works by Paul Klee, Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso and Mark Rothko.
The auction house will not be withdrawn from the auction
The jewelry auction is controversial, because although Heidi Horten herself had nothing to do with the crimes of Nazism, she used her husband’s property. “This sale is obscene,” Jonathan Arfi, president of the French Jewish roofing organization CRIF, told AFP. He pointed out that not only were the jewels bought with money looted from the Jews, but the sale was used to fund a foundation “whose mission is to preserve the name of the former Nazi for posterity.”
The Christie’s auctioneer knows the gravity of the allegations, but will not refuse to sell more than 700 pieces of jewelry.
Source: Wprost
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