Heidi Horten

Heidi Horten (née Jelinek; born 13 February 1941) is an Austrian billionaire and art collector. She is the widow of businessman Helmut Horten. In May 2020 Forbes estimated her net worth at US$3.0 billion.[1]

Horten inherited her wealth upon the death of her husband, the founder of the German department store business Horten AG.[1] Horten had met her husband when she was aged 19; he was 30 years older than she.[1] Horten is part of the board of Helmut Horten Stiftung, a charitable foundation that supports various healthcare related institutions, funds medical research, and helps individuals in need.[1]

Luxury yacht Carinthia VII (owned by Heidi Horten, Austria) in Venice

Horten divides her time between Vienna, Austria, and Tessin, Switzerland, when in Europe, and Lyford Cay in the Bahamas.[1] Horten owns the Carinthia VII, a 315-foot yacht, and enjoys hunting and art collecting. Horten sold the 35.56 carat Wittelsbach Diamond, formerly part of the crown jewels of Bavaria, for $24 million in 2008.[1]

Horten has amassed an art collection of over 500 works, which includes paintings by Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, Georg Baselitz, and Yves Klein.[2] In 2018, 170 works from the Heidi Horten Collection were exhibited at Leopold Museum in Vienna.[3] In 2019, Horten announced plans to open a private museum, having bought a 155-year-old, 22,000-square-foot mansion in Vienna to house the collection, which she plans to open it to the public in 2022.[2]

In August 2019, it emerged that Horten had dispensed almost one million Euro in 2018 and 2019 to the Austrian People's Party.[4]