MINNEAPOLIS, MN.- Revere Auctions, St. Paul, will auction the extensive and eclectic art collection of Aveda and Intelligent Nutrients founder and renowned environmentalist, Horst Rechelbacher (1914-2014), on August 24th, 2022. This is an exceptional opportunity for collectors and buyers to view, with the chance to own, pieces from an impressive art collection that spans genres, eras, and mixed media. Horst was a pioneer in the field of safe and eco-friendly cosmetics. The same curiosity that led him to explore ways to improve the beauty industry led him to travel the world, collecting rare and beautiful objects. He was interested in a wide variety of cultures and traveled extensively, shipping home containers of art and antiques that filled his home in Wisconsin. This passion and curiosity is reflected in this sale that features selections from a lifetime of eclectic and inspired collecting, including furniture by renowned designers Carlo Bugatti, Gabriel Viardot, and Josef Hoffman; artworks by artists ranging from Old Masters to Salvador Dali to Arman; as well as an impressive collection of Southeast Indian sculptures, Middle Eastern and Asian antiques, historical religious carvings, as well as photography and more.
Austrian by birth, and son of an herbalist, Horst was an active environmentalist, innovative business leader, author, artist, and organic farmer, and is best known as the founder of the cosmetics company Aveda Corporation and Intelligent Nutrients. His interest in developing products without toxic chemicals launched the market for natural cosmetics in the United States. Extensive traveling in India during the early 1970s exposed Horst to plant medicines, the potency of pure essential oils and seeded his love affair with aromatherapy. His visionary approach and methodology transformed the world of beauty by using natural ingredients
Horst M. Rechelbacher was born during WW2 in Klagenfurt, Austria. At age fourteen, he began a three-year apprenticeship in the beauty and salon industry. Undiagnosed dyslexia pushed him to become a creative thinker with a unique perspective for problem solving, leading him to become a hairdresser apprentice. Throughout the 1950s he won countless Junior Hairdressing Championships in Europe, followed by international awards that brought him to New York, Chicago and Minneapolis in his early twenties. After a traumatic car accident in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Horst opened a salon to pay accrued hospital bills. One salon soon became three. In tandem, Horst saw the opportunity to educate stylists on the skill and artistry of hairdressing and the importance of customer service. He created his own apprentice program that later evolved into the Horst Educational Center, which is now referred to as the Aveda Institute.
With an award-winning career as a hairstylist, in 1965, he started his own salons and product line called Horst. In 1978, Horst founded Aveda Corporation, a global plant-based cosmetic company with a natural and sustainable approach to making products. Nearly two decades later, he sold Aveda to Estée Lauder but remained a consultant until March 2003. Afterwards, he focused on his new product paradigm, Intelligent Nutrients, a health and beauty company that is centered on 100% food-based, safe, non-toxic and organic ingredients.
Since the mid 1960's, Horst dedicated himself to analyzing the chemical constitution of plants, and pioneered flower and plant-based flavor-aroma-therapy, functional foods, and nutraceuticals to enhance personal health and well being. Vanity Fair magazine voted Horst as one of the most influential environmentalists in the U.S. in 1995 and again in 2005. He was the author of three books. He lived in Wisconsin and New York City, and his organic farm in Wisconsin (where he grew ingredients for Intelligent Nutrients products) is solar, wind and geothermal powered.
Horst and Kiran Stordalen, his partner in life and work, traveled throughout Europe, India and Asia, searching for new product ideas and unique raw materials, all the while finding incredible art and artifacts to bring to their home in Osceola, Wisconsin.
