Austrian Billionaire Collector Dies at 81 – RisePEI

Heidi Göess-Horten, an Austrian division retailer heiress who simply earlier this month opened a long-awaited non-public museum in Vienna, has died at 81. A consultant for that museum, the Heidi Horten Assortment, mentioned that Göess-Horten died on Sundaay in her house in Lake Wörthersee.

“A beneficiant, warm-hearted and sensible lady has handed away in the present day,” the museum wrote in a press release. “She can be remembered for her manifold dedication, above all to the humanities and to sports activities, particularly as president of the KAC,” an Austrian hockey staff.

Göess-Horten was not simply one of many prime collectors in Austria however on the earth writ massive. With 700 works in her holdings, she has ranked on the ARTnews High 200 Collectors listing every year since 2018. But it surely was not till not too long ago that the majority have been conscious of the depth of her assortment in any respect.

In 2018, a displaying of her holdings went on view on the Leopold Museum in Vienna, that includes key work by Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Franz Marc, and extra that had been amassed over time. It was the primary time the general public had seen her assortment, which had lengthy been secreted away in her house. The Swiss publication Widewalls referred to as the exhibition “breathtaking.”

“The form of artwork, I’m surrounded by and which I dwell with, has change into out there artwork historical past,” Göess-Horten wrote within the exhibition catalogue for the present. “Therefore, my want of sharing this expertise with different folks has grown steadily.”

At the start of this month, Göess-Horten opened the Heidi Horten Assortment in Vienna. Whereas the spare opening grasp options a number of the blue-chip artists that Göess-Horten has been amassing over time, it’s usually richer in Austrian artists, a lot of whom work in a conceptual mode. Amongst them are Philipp Timischl, Constantin Luser, Erwin Wurm, Markus Schinwald, and Brigitte Kowanz.

The Heidi Horten Assortment mentioned that, to commemorate its namesake’s passing, it will supply free admission for the subsequent week beginning on Monday.

Heidi Göess-Horten was born underneath the title Heidi Jelinek in 1941 in Vienna. In 1966, she married Helmut Horten, the magnate behind the German division retailer chain Horten AG. When he died in 1987, Göess-Horten inherited his fortune. She later married Jean-March Charmat in 1994, and he or she remarried another time after that, to Karl Anton, the rely of Göess, in 2013.

With Helmut Horten, Göess-Horten had begun amassing. Some years after his loss of life, she started doing so extra critically. In 1996, her shopping for habits grew to become public when she purchased $22 million in artwork at a single Sotheby’s public sale in London. Agnes Husslein-Arco, the Sotheby’s Vienna specialist who helped her buy these works by telephone, now directs the Heidi Horten Assortment.

Göess-Horten was reportedly one of many the richest folks on the earth on the time of her loss of life, with Forbes reporting her web price to be $2.9 billion this yr.

Along with her artwork assortment, Göess-Horten was reported to personal one of many world’s largest motor yachts, the Carinthia VII, in response to Boat Worldwide. The yacht was put up on the market this yr with a $126 million price ticket.

She didn’t solely use her cash to purchase artwork and yachts, nonetheless. Austrian shops have reported that Horten gave the ice hockey staff KAC 3 million euros yearly. The Stadthalle, the world the place KAC performs in Klagenfurt, Austria, is predicted to bear her title when its renovation is full.

In the meantime, Göess-Horten was not too long ago the topic of some controversy in Austria when Der Commonplace revealed that she had donated nearly €1 million to the conservative-leaning Austrian People’s Party between 2018 and 2019. (In Austria, vital donations from non-public entities to political events are comparatively unusual, and should be publicly disclosed in the event that they exceed a specific amount.) These donations have been made in small quantities in order to keep away from having to report them. Her lawyer mentioned the donations have been legally compliant.

In accordance with the information that Der Commonplace reported, Göess-Horten was by far the largest donor to the celebration throughout that point interval. After initially not responding to requests for remark, Göess-Horten told the German publication Süddeutsche Zeitung that her donations have been “well-intentioned” however that she would not donate to any political celebration. She was by no means legally prosecuted for the donations, regardless of some politicians’ calls for for her to be.

Up till the tip, Göess-Horten continued shopping for artwork, and he or she seen her assortment because the core a part of her legacy.

“I knew after the primary public presentation of my assortment that I needed to protect the works for posterity and share a treasure with people who has been with me in my non-public life for a few years and given me such happiness,” she instructed ARTnews in an electronic mail final week.

“That’s why I see my museum as a spot of discovery, of sensuous expertise, of the enjoyment of artwork—as a result of that’s what artwork has been and nonetheless is for me: an important supply of pleasure!”