Heidi Horten in the museum

Picasso, Warhol and great Carinthian artists

Dog lover Heidi Horten, portrayed by Carinthian painter Helga Druml.(Bild: Irina Lino )

For the first time outside Vienna, Agnes Husslein-Arco is bringing a selection from the Heidi Horten Collection to the kärnten.museum. The exhibition can be visited from November 8 to April 6. The "Krone" has already been there. 

The fact that the Viennese Heidi Goëss-Horten (1941 - 2022) loved Carinthia is not only known from her great commitment to animal welfare and the Klagenfurt ice hockey club KAC. The art collection of the department store heiress, billionaire and patron of the arts also focuses on top-class Austrian positions alongside superstars of classical modernism and, with Helga Druml, Gudrun Kampl and Theres Cassini, a strong, contemporary trio of female artists from Carinthia.

Wolfgang Muchitsch (kärnten.museum, left), A. Husslein-Arco (Horten Collection), curators Johannsen & Ponta-Zitterer(Bild: Irina Lino)

"My aunt was Heidi's partner, that's how we got to know each other," says Husslein-Arco, who, as a close friend and confident artistic advisor, was (and is) not only instrumental in building up the collection, but also the private museum "Heidi Horten Collection" in Vienna's Hanuschgasse, which the art historian, art manager and Boeckl granddaughter has been running since its opening in 2022.

Mimmo Paladino's horse sculpture stood in Heidi Horten's park in Sekirn(Bild: Irina Lino)

In the "flower garden" by Emil Nolde(Bild: Irina Lino)

Marc Chagall's main work(Bild: Irina Lino)

"In the 1990s, Heidi remodeled her Wörthersee estate in Sekirn and started collecting art, which she asked me to help her with. That was a turning point in her life because she wanted to leave something behind for the world. It all started with 40 paintings bought at auction from Sotheby's, which laid the foundation," Husslein-Arco recalls the beginnings.

Private collection in five themed rooms 
The treasures with many major works and a collective "wow effect" that Horten has brought together over the decades to form one of the most important private collections in Austria can also be seen in five themed rooms in the kärnten.museum. Here you are in the illustrious company of paintings, sculptures and works of artisanry, which include everything from Picasso and Chagall to pop art icon Warhol and Austria's superstar Erwin Wurm and also provide insights into the life of an important collector - from 8. 11. to 6. 4. at kärnten.museum