Christie's Cancels Sale of Jewelry Connected to Nazi- Era Fortune, NYT

- Christie’s Cancels Sale of Jewelry Connected to Nazi-Era Fortune, New York Times, Aug. 31, 2023. Ed.

The decision follows a backlash from Jewish organizations after the auction house generated $202 million in a spring sale from the jewelry collection of Heidi Horten. Christie’s announced on Thursday that a second sale of jewelry from the collection of the Austrian heiress Heidi Horten had been canceled, citing the “intense scrutiny” that the auction house had faced from Jewish organizations and some collectors.

Ahead of the initial sale in May, which generated a record $202 million from diamonds, emeralds & sapphires, the NYT reported on the connections between the Horten fortune and Nazi-era policies that helped her husband, the German retailer Helmut Horten, expand his department store chain during that time at the expense of disenfranchised Jewish business owners. Helmut Horten died in 1987 & Heidi Horten in 2022. The Heidi Horten Foundation said then that the proceeds would go toward medical research and to a Vienna museum dedicated to artwork the couple had owned.

But some historians found the auction house’s decision to move forward with the sale distasteful, and employees had raised concerns internally about tarnishing its reputation. After the criticism, Christie’s added information to the auction materials saying that Helmut Horten had bought Jewish businesses that were “sold under duress,” and said the auction house would donate a portion of the proceeds to Holocaust research & education. Several Jewish organizations rebuffed Christie’s in the following months.

Yad Vashem, the organization for Israel’s official memorial to Holocaust victims, said it had declined a donation from the auction house because of the money’s source. The Jerusalem Post reported that other Jewish groups had also spurned the donations, though Christie’s has said that conversations are continuing...

- Full Article, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/31/arts/design/christies-heidi-horten-sale.html