Shortly before her death she completed her life’s work
Heidi Goëss-Horten (1941–2022)
Source: Heidi Horten Collection/Photo: Ouriel Morgensztern
She was considered the richest Austrian, now Heidi Goëss-Horten has died. Her art collection, which is on display in a private museum in Vienna, is controversial: Where did the money for works from Picasso to Warhol come from?
SThe more than six meter high wind instrument “Vibrosauria” runs vertically through the house. Constantin Luser is sitting downstairs at his sound sculpture and lets loud tones ring out through the rooms. The appearance of the Viennese artist is the highlight of the opening ceremony of the Heidi Horten Collection, Vienna’s first private museum.
After just 30 months, the conversion of a Wilhelminian style house into modern architecture is complete. Prominently located just a few steps from the Albertina and the State Opera, the collection of billionaire Heidi Horten has found a permanent home here. Died unexpectedly on June 12, 2022 at the age of 81.
But the laying of the foundation stone for this enormous wealth follows her like a long shadow. And so the Horten Foundation decided to take matters into their own hands and commissioned Peter Hoeres from the University of Würzburg with an expert opinion. He has now researched the history of the former department store company on 200 pages – just in time for the opening of the collection.
Building of the Heidi Horten Collection in Vienna
Source: Heidi Horten Collection/Photo: Rupert Steiner
So how was it possible that Helmut Horten was able to take over a large department store in 1936 at the age of 27? In fact, the former seller was initially only a managing director with only 16.7 percent of the newly founded Helmut Horten KG. His strategy was clear: He was specifically looking for Jewish-owned retail businesses to take over. However, the experts under Hoeres’ direction emphasize that Horten did not cause or exacerbate “an emergency situation”. Which only makes things better to a limited extent.
Their conclusion: Horten clearly benefited from the situation of the evicted owners when buying Jewish companies, but initially paid “quite normal market prices” for the takeovers in Duisburg and Wattenscheid and also satisfied subsequent claims for compensation. The study attests Horten a “comparatively fair” action and speaks of the under-complex attribution of the ‘Aryan’.
After the end of National Socialism, Horten was only able to fall back on greatly reduced assets due to the war losses. “The assumption that the basis of Horten’s fortune came from the Nazi era is only partially correct,” is the summary. The report did not resolve the flaw, but defused it.
The collection includes more than 700 works that have previously adorned Heidi Horten’s private homes on Lake Wörthersee, in Kitzbühel, London, New York and in the Bahamas – she lives with art, she emphasized in one of the few interviews with her.
Exhibition view OPEN, Heidi Horten Collection, Vienna
Quelle: kunst-dokumentation.com/Manuel Carreon Lopez
These are works by German Expressionists, which she acquired together with Helmut Horten, and later mostly paintings by Paul Klee, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly and Damien Hirst, which were acquired at auction. With so many blue-chip names, she was constantly told that her collection was nothing more than a “trophy case.” In 2018 she showed 175 works publicly for the first time. The show entitled “Wow” in Vienna’s Leopold Museum broke all visitor records in the building.
At that time, the public-shy collector also decided on a permanent installation – which is surprising in the new house: rich in contrast, young, Austrian through and through! Director Agnes Husslein, advisor to the collection since 1990, consciously opted for a reduced selection for the opening in order to let the architecture work.
There are hardly any trophies to be seen. On the 1500 square meters of the three levels in the gutted house, works by Lucio Fontana meet John Armleder’s fluorescent circles from the “Target” series, an early Robert Rauschenberg sculpture enters into dialogue with a red neon work by Brigitte Kowanz. For the “Tea Room” Markus Schinwald created seating furniture and a textile-covered display case wall with glass portholes. Behind it are valuables, small table sculptures by Franz Hagenauer and silverware – objects that also belong to the collection. Hans Kupelwieser’s velvety red aluminum panels, which are reminiscent of baroque forms but deformed with the help of an excavator, hang from the ceiling.
Lena Henke, “UR mother”, 2019
Source: Lena Henke
The fine balance between big names and young artists like Lena Henke is also convincing. Some may be irritated by Henke’s bold, purple sow entitled “UR-Mutter”, but it clearly shows that personal aspects are at work here: Heidi Horten’s great love for animals.
That’s probably why Husslein doesn’t speak of a museum, but calls it a “panopticon with a museum character” – which the upcoming exhibition in October will underline: “Look” will put Horten’s haute couture collection in a dialogue with portraits of women. And maybe at some point Heidi Horten’s own pictures will be mixed in.