One of the largest jewelry sales in history opens next month in Switzerland, with 700 glittering pieces expected to fetch more than $150 million, including the world’s most expensive ruby ring valued at up to $20 million.
Christie’s auction house plans to sell off unique pieces by Cartier, Harry Winston and Tiffany, among others, as part of the collection of Austrian philanthropist Heidi Horten, who died last year.
Horten amassed her wealth — and a storied art and jewelry collection — while married to first husband Helmut Horten, an entrepreneur and member of the Nazi party who made his fortune from department stores confiscated from Jewish owners after the Nazis invaded Austria in 1938.
The couple met at a bar in 1959, when Heidi was 19, and Helmut was 51.
They married seven years later, and began building an art collection with pieces by Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso and Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele.
When Helmut died in 1987, his wife inherited his $1 billion fortune and continued buying one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces from the world’s most storied jewelers.
The Christie’s sale is expected to shatter its own records, topping the sale of actress Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry collection, which earned $116 million in 2011, and a 2019 Christie’s auction of Indian royal jewels which brought in $109 million.
A 2015 Sotheby’s sale currently holds the all-time record for the sale of jewels at a single auction, with that auction raking in a whopping $160.9 million.
The Horten collection includes the Briolette of India, a 90-carat diamond necklace designed by Harry Winston and sold by Cartier in 1909.
The estimate for the piece is available on request from the auction house, according to a news release.
“From a small personal memory piece to the Briolette of India, this is a collector’s dream,” Rahul Kadakia, Christie’s International Head of Jewelry said in a statement.
“Mrs. Horten eloquently combined vintage and modern designs from the world’s leading jewelry houses that today represent some of the finest examples ever to come to market.”
Cartier’s 25-carat Sunrise Ruby ring, which is “of exceptional purity,” is expected to go for between $15 and $20 million, according to the Christie’s catalog.
Originally mined in Myanmar, the rare gemstone is the most expensive ruby in history.
It was sold for $30.42 million at the Sotheby’s jewelry auction in Geneva in 2015.
A triple strand of 175 natural saltwater pearls designed by Harry Winston featuring a pink diamond clasp of 11.5 carats has an estimate of $7 million to $10 million.
Another Winston piece — the Great Mughal emerald and diamond pendant — has a pre-sale estimate of $500,000 to $700,000.
In 2018, Horten paid $36 million for a pearl that once belonged to Marie Antoinette.
The pearl, which was smuggled out of Versailles in a wooden chest by courtiers of the doomed French queen, had not been seen for centuries.
The pearl and diamond pendant is not part of Christie’s sale.
The first part of the two-part live auction series is scheduled to begin May 10 in Geneva.
Christie’s has also included online sales that run through May 15.
The remaining jewels in the Horten collection will be sold in a second online auction in November, the auction house said.
Proceeds from the Christie’s sale will benefit Horten’s non-profit foundation, according to Christie’s.