Black Bling

"We were in 27 archives in Europe, and we read thousands of pages of sources, and I think we in the end [discovered]  ... there is not a saint and not a devil, but there is Horten who ... benefited from the circumstances of the tyranny of the Nazis."

"You can't say Horten was part of the resistance against the dictatorship."

"[The 'Control Commission for Germany' under postwar British authority called Horten] a scoundrel of the worst type [and a] thoroughly depraved character [who should be brought to justice."

Peter Hoeres, Historian, University of Wurzburg, Germany

 

"Mr. Horten's business activities during the Second World War are well-documented, and that is something that Christie's carefully considered when pitching for this collection."

"We took on this collection in the understanding that 100 percent of the final sale proceeds will go to philanthropic causes."

"We cannot erase history -- but hopefully the money from this sale will go to do good in the future."

Max Fawcett, head, jewellery department, Christie's Geneva 

Associated Press

 

Christie's auction of an astounding cache of hugely expensive jewellery has drawn criticism from Jewish groups. None of the jewellery to be auctioned was bought from Jews, but the enormous sums used to acquire them were a result of the Third Reich's propaganda villainizing, disentitling and appropriating Jewish property along with the 'Aryanization' of once-owned Jewish retail emporiums. 

This happened when tens of thousands of Jewish-owned retail stores, from small family-operated businesses to huge department store chains were effectively put out of business by a well-organized and systemic boycott of all things Jewish in the Nazi program to destroy Jewish commerce, influence and civic respectability. Propaganda attacks, boycott measures and inciting Germans to shun Jews and their commercial enterprises all served to bring financial ruin to German Jews on the way to the Holocaust.

 

The jewellery in question is represented by 700 pieces from the collection of an Austrian heiress whose German husband had built a retail empire in the 1930s by taking advantage of the ruin of Jewish retail that resulted in Jewish-owned-and-operated mercantile businesses becoming close to market-worthless. According to Christie's Auction House, an anticipated $150 million will be realized in the sale of the collection. Proceeds of the sale are to be directed toward its former owner's Vienna art museum, child welfare, and medical research.

 

Associated Press

 

With mounting criticism and fears of harm to the auction house's reputation, Christie's has announced that some of its sale profits will be earmarked for Holocaust education. The Simon Wiesenthal Center based in Los Angeles, a renowned Jewish human rights group named after a Holocaust survivor who became a famed Nazi-hunter, spoke of the billions in wealth amassed by Helmut Horten as the "sum of profits from Nazi 'Aryanization' of Jewish department stores' under Nazi Germany".

Historian Peter Hoeres of University of Wurzburg was commissioned by Heidi Horten, the owner of the jewellery, to research and write an extensive study of hr husband's business empire. This was a time that Jewish art and antiques, jewellery, heirlooms; anything of commercial value was being expropriated from Jewish ownership, sometimes outright, sometimes with nominal payment. The persecution of Europe's Jews led to huge profits for the non-Jews that took advantage of persecution, oppression and genocide.

Helmut Horten built his business empire through buying "at a cut price" the very department store where he worked when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. Owners of the Alsberg department store, the Strauss and Lauter families, saw boycott calls and other commercial- and reputation-destructive assaults reduce their wealth to a pittance, scavenged by those like Mr. Horten who saw opportunity in the misfortune of others. 

According to testimonies which the historian uncovered, Helmut Horten had 'tried to help' some Jews, even 'mocked' Nazi leaders occasionally, but he chose to abide by Nazi race laws and fired Jewish employees. During the war years, Horten's personal fortunes soared. With the defeat of Germany in 1945, Horten was interned for two years by the British, but in 1948, released, he leveraged loans to create the fourth-largest department store chain in Germany, amassing a greater fortune than ever.

The jewellery to be auctioned was bought from the early 1970s forward, up to 2022 when Heidi Horten died. Her husband who had "purchased Jewish businesses sold under duress" [Christie's note] predeceased her in 1987. The pieces at auction feature sapphires, emeralds, pearls, diamonds and more. There is a 90-carat 'Riolette of India' diamond with a presale estimate of $10 to $15 million.

Associated Press

The 'Sunrise Ruby' ring of close to 26 carats fetched a record $30 million when it was bought by Heidi Horten eight years ago at a Geneva auction. "Horten' billions used to build this collection were also the sum of profits from Nazi 'Aryanization' of Jewish department stores", wrote Shimon Samuels, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's director for international relations, in a letter sent to Guillaume Cerutti, CEO of Christie's.

Associated Press