Horten Auction Beats $139m Estimate
May 11, 23
(IDEX Online) - The first auction of Heidi Horten's jewelry - a sale marred by publicity over her Nazi-era fortune - yesterday raised $156m, well above its $139m low estimate.
That's despite two star items falling short. The 25.59-carat Sunrise Ruby (pictured) which the Austrian billionaire bought for $30min 2015, sold for $14.6m (low estimate was $15.7m).
And the 90-carat "Briolette of India" diamond sold for $7m (low estimate was $10m.
Ninety-six items were sold. A further 600, mostly lower value items, will be sold at another auction tomorrow (Friday 12 May) and in online sales.
Horten inherited a fortune from her first husband Helmut Horten, who bought department stores from Jewish businessmen under duress in 1930s Germany.
Heidi Horten (nee Jelinek) was 19 when she met him. He was more than 30 years her senior.
He died in 1987, and in 2020 Forbes estimated that her personal fortune at $3bn. She died last June, aged 81.
Last week the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) called on Christie's to donate a major portion of the total proceeds to charities supporting the welfare of Holocaust survivors, as well as commemoration and education
Christie's said it would donate a "significant portion" of the commission, rather than the proceeds, towards Holocaust research and education.