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Holocaust Survivors Call for Boycott of Tel Aviv Museum Conference in Collaboration with Christie’s
Edited by: Fern Sidman
Christie’s auction house has been facing significant criticism following the sale of a jewelry collection tied to Nazi plunder for a staggering $202 million, as was recently reported by the JTA. Holocaust survivors have taken Christie’s to task for the auction, and now their attention is shifting towards the relationship between Christie’s, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and a New York-based charity that funds the museum.
The JTA reported that The Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA has called for the cancellation of a conference on art restitution that the museum is hosting in collaboration with Christie’s. The survivors argue that the conference would provide a platform for Holocaust profiteers to justify their actions and marginalize survivors globally, the report indicated. The involvement of Marc Porter, a senior executive at Christie’s who serves on the board of the American Friends organization, has raised concerns about a conflict of interest.
Porter played a key role in organizing Christie’s yearlong initiative celebrating the 25th anniversary of an international agreement on the restitution of Nazi-looted art, which culminates with the Tel Aviv event, as was reported by the JTA. Critics question the potential conflict of interest arising from Porter’s involvement in both the fundraising apparatus and the professional credit he stands to gain from the event hosted at the museum.
Christie’s has responded to the concerns, stating that there is no conflict of interest in Porter’s roles and support for the American Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the JTA report said. The auction house claims that Porter was not involved in the negotiations regarding the restitution program at the museum. However, the pressure on the museum and the allegations surrounding Porter’s dual roles continue to escalate. The JTA also reported that Christie’s previously faced significant backlash for auctioning the jewelry collection tied to Nazi plunder, prompting them to offer donations to support Holocaust research and education. Nevertheless, several institutions, including the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and Yad Vashem, have rejected the donations, emphasizing that Christie’s should not profit from the sale, and instead, the funds should go towards the care of Holocaust survivors, according to the report.
The auction in question featured jewelry from the estate of Heidi Horten, an Austrian philanthropist whose fortune was partially built during the Nazi era through the dispossession of Jewish businesses, the JTA report stated. Christie’s faced criticism for the lack of disclosure regarding the origin of the Hortens’ wealth in the auction catalog. In response, the auction house added a note online acknowledging that the businesses were acquired under duress. The JTA reported that they pledged to donate a portion of their profits from the sale. However, the rejection of their donations by key organizations highlights the ongoing controversy and the perception that Christie’s is involved in sanitizing the Horten legacy, the report suggested.
The Horten collection included necklaces, brooches and bracelets by designers like Cartier, Bulgari, Harry Winston and Van Cleef & Arpels. One notable lot, the “Briolette of India,” featured a 90-carat diamond, with a high estimate price of roughly $7.8 million. It was slated to break records as one of the largest jeweler sales in history. The New York Times reported that the amount brought in at the auction was expected to surpass the $137 million taken in during the 2011 sale of famed actress Elizabeth Taylor’s extensive collection of fine jewelry. The New York Post reported that the all time record for the sale of jewels, goes to Christie’s main competitor, Sotheby’s who in 2015 fetched $160.9 million at a single auction.
The Post report, written by investigative journalist Isabel Vincent, the author of the 2022 book, “Overture of Hope” that focuses on the amazing story of two British sisters who spirited dozens of Jewish opera singers as well as personnel of the Austrian and German opera out of the country during World War II to escape the wrath of the Third Reich, wrote that Horten’s staggering wealth which includes her grand jewelry and impressive art collection was obtained while married to her first husband.
Horten’s late husband Helmut, who died in 1987, managed to amass this wealth as a member of the Nazi party and a business man who made his fortune from department stores confiscated from Jewish owners after the Nazis invaded Austria in 1938. Through his ruthless confiscation Horten built up the fourth-largest chain of department stores in Germany known as Horten AG.
The May-December romance between the couple began when Helmut was 51 years old and Heidi was only 19 years of age. The Post reported that the two met in a bar in 1959. They married seven years later and set out to construct an art collection with pieces by such well known artists as Egon Schiele, an Austrian Expressionist, Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall. In a new Netflix seven part series titled, “Transatlantic” Chagall is portrayed as being ushered out of France in the early 1940s to escape Nazi persecution by Varian Fry, an American journalist who lived in Marseille in order to rescue Europe’s brain trust from annihilation.
Helmut Horten was apprenticed in a Düsseldorf department store belonging to Leonhard Tietz before working for the Duisburg department store of the Gebrüder Alsberg (Alsberg brothers) company, according to a Wikipedia report. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Horten was able to acquire the company from the Jewish owners, Strauß and Lauter, who fled to the United States. Wikipedia reported that he was aided in this transaction by the banker Wilhelm Reinhold of the Commerz- and Disconto-Bank. The bank was to become a partner in the newly formed Horten & Co.
Wikipedia also reported that until 1939, Horten acquired several other department stores and enjoyed a good relationship with the Nazi government despite that his uncle, the (later) Catholic saint Titus Maria Horten died in custody in 1936. Horten was able to acquire the distribution rights to certain goods which were scarce due to the Second World War, the report indicated.
Subsequent to World War II, Horten was interned by the British Army in 1947 in Recklinghausen. Following a hunger strike he was released in 1948, as was reported by Wikipedia. He soon continued with the consolidation and expansion of his company, which he still owned. Horten introduced Germany’s first supermarket after a visit to the United States.
In 1968, with 25,000 staff and turnover of the equivalent of 1 billion euros in West German marks, he floated the group on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, according to the Wikipedia report.
In 1972, Horten sold his majority stake and retired from the business, which controversially lost a great deal of value soon afterwards. Wikipedia reported that in 1994 the chain was bought by Kaufhof Holding AG, merged into the German retail group METRO AG in 1996.
Christie’s auction house also acceded that, the decision to host the sale in Geneva included a debate about Helmut Horten’s questionable purchases from Jews who were compelled to sell because of the impending Nazi onslaught during World War II. “We are aware there is a painful history,” said Anthea Peers, president of Christie’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa division, as was reported by the NYT. “We weighed that up against various factors,” she added, saying that the foundation is “a key driver of philanthropic causes.”
“Please know that we have engaged in both thoughtful and constructive conversations with those who have reached out to us to openly address their concerns,” Peers said in a statement to National Jeweler.
She added that, “At the same time, we appreciate our clients’ and colleagues’ candor about the way Christie’s is handling the auction and their support of our efforts to enhance transparency. “
The JTA reported that Peers acknowledged the need for greater transparency and examination of the source of wealth used to purchase auction items. She recognized that Christie’s should have been more transparent when the sale was announced. Peers stated that the auction and the subsequent backlash presented an opportunity for self-reflection and emphasized the company’s commitment to listen and evolve.
The lack of communication and response from Christie’s, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and the American Friends group makes it challenging to evaluate the situation from an ethical standpoint. The JTA report indicated that Ann Skeet, an expert in nonprofit sector ethics, highlighted the importance of disclosing decision-making processes as a best practice in leadership ethics. Holocaust survivors’ representative, David Schaecter, warned that if the museum continues its association with Christie’s, it risks tarnishing its reputation and betraying the survivors it should protect.
