Tel Aviv Art Museum Calls Off Christie’s-Hosted Conference Following Jewelry Auction Fallout

The Tel Aviv Museum of Art has canceled a conference hosted by Christie’s amid continued pushback over the auction house’s recent sale of collector Heidi Horten’s collection.

That auction, staged in May, raked in more than $200 million, becoming the most expensive private jewelry sale ever. (In addition to buying jewelry, Horten, who died in 2022 and formerly ranked on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list, amassed a rich art collection that can be seen in a recently opened private museum in Vienna.) But the Christie’s sale, which totaled some 700 lots, including a $14.5 million Cartier ring, faced controversy over the late collector’s source of income.

Some organizations, including the American Jewish Committee, issued statements in the run-up to the auction claiming that Horten’s wealth had been been accrued through the disenfranchisement of Jews during World War II. The American Jewish Committee said that her husband, Helmut Horten, “took advantage of aryanization laws and the desperate needs of Jews fleeing the Nazis.”

Despite calls for the sale’s cancelation, Christie’s forged onward. Anthea Peers, president of Christie’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa, told the New York Times, “We are aware there is a painful history. We weighed that up against various factors,” including Horten’s philanthropy.”

Now, it seems that the auction has continued to haunt Christie’s.

In a statement to Israel Hayom, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art said it had canceled the conference, due to happen this December, amid the bitter condemnation Christie’s had faced. Titled “Reflecting on Restitution,” the conference was intended to mark 25 years of restitution-related efforts on Christie’s behalf.

“The Tel Aviv Art Museum is attentive to criticism and bound by public sentiment and has decided not to host the ‘Reflecting on Restitution’ conference with Christie’s,” the museum told Israel Hayom.

In a statement, a Christie’s spokesperson said, “We respect the Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s decision to cancel the long-planned programme on restitution, scheduled to take place at the museum in December. Christie’s global series of year-long events in our Reflecting on Restitution programme has been planned over the past few years in collaboration with many organizations and individuals to mark the 25^th anniversary of the Washington Principles, and we believe deeply in its goal of bringing together historians, researchers, scholars, legal experts, families, artists and many others touching the world of restitution in cities all over the world to share and discuss important stories, ideas and perspectives. These exchanges and public discourse are vital to encourage greater awareness and understanding of the complex issues relating to the restitution of Nazi-looted art and the essential work being done in this field.”

The criticism to which the museum referred had been fielded by Jewish groups last week. The Jerusalem Post reported that the Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA has sent a letter to the museum, claiming that the conference would offer “a platform within the Jewish State for Holocaust profiteers to justify their plunder and marginalize Holocaust survivors around the world.”

Adding further complications to the matter were allegations of conflict of interest spurred by Marc Porter, a senior executive at Christie’s who is also a board member of the Tel Aviv Museum’s American Friends group. A Christie’s spokesperson said there was no conflict of interest and that Porter had not been involved in the planning of the conference. The museum said that the American Friends group “is not involved in any of the content or decision-making processes at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.”

Update, 7/4/23, 8 p.m.: This article has been updated with a statement from Christie’s.