#1040

Heidi Horten

Austria 85 years old

Overview

Heidi Horten inherited a fortune from her husband, Helmut Horten, who founded the German department store Horten AG in 1936.

She met the much older Horten in a bar in Austria in 1959, when she was 19.

When he died in 1987, he left Horten a $1 billion fortune that has since grown.

She sits on the board of Helmut Horten Stiftung, a charitable foundation supporting medical research and health care institutions.

Horten is opening her own private museum next to Vienna's Burggarten in 2022, displaying parts of her collection.

She is an avid ice hockey fan and art collector, with a collection spanning some 500 works from the likes of Bacon, Picasso and Warhol.

In 2008 Horten sold a 35.5 carat diamond that was once a Bavarian crown jewel for $24 million.