Peyton Wolff
Six decades would pass before Hoguet’s aunt, Bettina Looram, who died in 2012, succeeded in getting the Austrian government to return much of the artwork, furniture, and books the Nazis had confiscated from the family. In 1999, the treasures were put on the block at Christie’s in London, and Hoguet, her two cousins, and Looram all flew in before the sale to look through their ancestors’ trove. Among the items Hoguet kept was an enormous 16th-century horsehead-adorned horn, which now hangs in the house’s central hallway, and a 17th-century Dutch landscape, displayed in the library.
A few years after the sale, as Hoguet’s suburban nest started emptying, she felt the pull of urban life, and in 2005 she moved back to the city.
Soon Sachs and architect Kevin Lindores, his professional and life partner, were drawn into the saga of what to do with Hoguet’s Long Island relic. Eventually they made it through the whole house, bringing in interesting, even funky, textiles, playful kilims, and shocks of contemporary art.
On the dining room’s newly painted walls, three large Donald Baechler works replaced heavy displays of family china. The result is an inviting eat-in space where everything feels as though it has been there forever, save for some boldly geometric cement floor tiles.
