It is anticipated that the jewelry collection of the late Austrian billionaire Heidi Horton will break the record set by the late actress Elizabeth Taylor more than a decade ago.
Kim Kardashian paid $64,900 for three Lorraine Schwartz bangles in 2011, when Taylor’s jewels sold for nearly $116 million at auction.
However, Christie’s estimates that a collection of auctions in May and November at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva and online will bring in more than $150 million for the more than 700 jewels that Horton, an art collector, owned.
Christie’s said it is expected to “eclipse” the 2011 Elizabeth Taylor Collection and the 2019 Maharajas & Mughal Magnificence auctions, which are the only two jewelry collections to achieve more than $100 million. The collection is billed as “the largest and most valuable” private jewelry collection ever to come to auction.
The pieces incorporate a 90-carat “Briolette of India” jewel neckband by Harry Winston, a ruby and precious stone Cartier ring that is “pigeon blood” in variety, a progression of current and many years old Bulgari manifestations, and things from other extravagance names like Tiffany and Van Cleef and Arpels.
“The Universe of Heidi Horten is a truly mind-blowing assortment,” said Rahul Kadakia, Christie’s global head of gems, in a public statement. ” This is a collector’s dream, from Bulgari to Van Cleef & Arpels, from a small personal memento to the Briolette of India.”
“Working from phenomenal early pieces she gained in the 1970’s and 1980’s, Mrs. Horten proceeded to develop and organize her complex assortment, persuasively consolidating classic and present day plans from the main gems places of the world that today address probably the best models ever to come to showcase,” Kadakia added.
According to Christie’s, the money will be donated to The Heidi Horten Foundation, which supports various causes including medical research, child welfare, and the museum that she established prior to her death in Vienna, Austria.
In the release, Christie’s EMEA president Anthea Peers said, “This is a historic moment for Christie’s to have the privilege of offering one of the world’s finest and most important jewellery collections originating from Europe.”
According to Forbes, when Horten passed away in June of last year, she had a net worth of approximately $3 billion. After her first husband, German businessman Helmut Horten, passed away in 1987, she received an inheritance of one billion dollars.
Because her father was an engraver, Horten was exposed to the allure of beautiful things from a young age. The auction house says that after she got married, her love for art and jewelry got even stronger.
She proceeded to have a variety of enriching, current and contemporary works of art, some of which are housed in her gallery.
According to Christie’s, Helmut Horten acquired wealth by purchasing Jewish businesses that were sold under duress during the Nazi era. An organization advancing Holocaust education and research will receive a “significant contribution” from the auction house, the company stated.
