The world’s most expensive jewelry collection – Horten’s collection features more than 700 pieces of jewelry, which Christie’s initially predicted would sell for more than $150 million.

Hundreds of pieces of jewelry once owned by the late Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten fetched a total of 179.9 million Swiss francs ($201 million) to become the most expensive private jewelry collection ever seen. at the auction.

The sale broke the record set more than a decade ago by the collection of Elizabeth Taylor, whose gems were worth nearly $116 million in New York in 2011.

Last week’s auction went ahead despite concerns from Jewish groups about the origins of Horten’s wealth. The late art collector, who Forbes reported had a net worth of about $3 billion when she died last June, inherited $1 billion from her first husband, Helmut Horten, after his death in 1987. According to Christie’s, the German businessman purchased Jewish products during the Nazi era.

A Bulgari diamond and emerald bracelet was among the 700 pieces of jewelry sold.

The American Jewish Committee has called for a moratorium on the auction until “a serious effort” is made to investigate the source of Hortens’ 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 law and the desperate need of fleeing Jews from Nazi Germany”.

In an open letter to Christie’s, Jewish human rights organization the Simon Wiesenthal Center said it “demands” that the sale stop. The Holocaust Education Foundation told the UK Jewish Chronicle newspaper that the auction was a “real insult to the victims of the Holocaust.”

In an online sales catalog, Christie’s said that the source of Horten’s wealth was his “well-documented” business activities. The auction house added that it will make a “significant” donation from the sale proceeds to organizations that promote research and education about the Nazi genocide.

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, benefit children and other charitable activities.

 

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 includes more than 700 pieces of jewelry, which Christie’s initially predicts will sell for more than $150 million.

The Harry Winston necklace features a 90.38 carat briolette cut diamond, alongside smaller marquise and pear-shaped diamonds.

But while the collection continued to beat estimates, some big-ticket items underperformed. The most valuable lot, a Cartier ruby ​​and “pigeon blооd” diamond ring, fetched just over 13 million Swiss francs ($14.5 million), although Christie’s predicted upward bidding. to 18 million Swiss francs (20 million USD). A 90-carat “Briolette of India” diamond necklace by jeweler Harry Winston also went under estimate, selling for 6.3 million Swiss francs ($7 million).

However, a Bulgari diamond ring more than doubled its high estimate for 9.1 million Swiss francs ($10.1 million). Other jewelry on sale includes items from luxury names such as Tiffany and Van Cleef & Arpels.

Horten was introduced to the appeal of beautiful objects at an early age because her father was an engraver. According to the auction house, her love for jewelry and art deepened after her marriage.

She continues to own a wide range of decorative, modern and contemporary works of art, some of which are housed in her museums.

A ruby ​​and diamond “Bird of Paradise” brooch by Van Cleef & Arpels, a multi-gem lion brooch by René Boivin and a pair of unsigned lion head earrings.

“Heidi Horten’s world is the collection of a lifetime,” Rahul Kadakia, international jewelry director at Christie’s, said in a press release ahead of the sale. “From Bulgari to Van Cleef & Arpels, from a small personal keepsake to an Indian Briolette, this is every collector’s dream.

“Building from the original exceptional pieces she acquired in the 1970s and 1980s, Ms. Horten continues to develop and curate her sophisticated collection, seamlessly blending classic and contemporary designs from the world’s leading jewelry houses which today represent some of the finest examples ever to hit the market,” Kadakia added.