very few days after the death of Maria Kodama -died on March 24-, his lawyer and proxy in life, Fernando Sotocalled a meeting to announce that no will of any kind has been found (neither before a notary public nor a holograph), until now, indicating which one it was the will of the widow of Jorge Luis Borges in relation to the destination of his own assets and those he inherited from the writer. Among those assets, obviously, are the full rights to his work.
The assets to inherit
“The Mrs. María Kodama was the owner of movable property, real estate and, as the universal heir of the writer Jorge Luis Borges, was the owner of the copyright of all his Literary Work, in addition to being the owner of all the medals, decorations and distinctions received by the writer throughout his career, of original manuscripts of his Work, of drawings of his authorship and of his personal library (intervened by Borges himself), among many other assets of the highest cultural, historical and patrimonial value”, details Soto in his writing
Along with the details of the prizes that the writer received during his lifetime, the physical awards that accompanied the distinction are described, many of them of great economic value.
In addition to the intellectual rights of the work of Borgeswhich Kodama received by will from the writer, she herself was the author of several books, some of them written together with the author of “El Aleph”.
The real estate is two contiguous apartments where he lived on Rodríguez Peña street, plus an apartment on French street, all in the Federal Capital. Also the building that functioned as the headquarters of the Jorge Luis Borges International Foundation, at Anchorena 1660, in Buenos Aires.
To this should be added, surely, cash in bank accounts and objects of great value such as first editions and manuscripts of the writer.
The objective
The fate of the Jorge Luis Borges International Foundation It is uncertain, because it was fully supported by María Kodama, who had founded it in 1988. Even most of the goods on display in its facilities were owned by the writer, who never ceded them to the institution.
As Fernando Soto explains, the intention of presenting his writing is to preserve the patrimony of María Kodama, of immense cultural value for Argentines. And also make the general public aware of the need to know the instances of a succession that concerns us all.
Regarding the heirs, the existence of a brother of María Kodama is known, but the testimony of her friends indicates that she had no contact with him.
The judge (the brief was filed in Court 94, Secretary 11, before the deputy judge María Verónica Ramírez) will determine the steps to follow. In case the inheritance becomes vacant, it will pass into the hands of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires which, according to the law, could liquidate the properties and even the rights of the writer’s work, to turn them over to an Education Fund.
It is still paradoxical that the legacy of the great Argentine writers (Adolfo Bioy Casares and Julio Cortázar, for example) end up being long processes with no simple solutions in sight.
.
Image gallery
