The nephews of MarÃa Kodama, widow of the writer Jorge Luis Borges, have presented themselves as heirs in the inheritance file to acquire the assets and work of the Argentine who died in 1986. This was announced on his Twitter account by the widow’s lawyer , Fernando Soto. “It makes me very happy and relieves my spirit. A new stage is opening in the protection of the Work of Borges”, he celebrated.
MarÃa Kodama, also a writer, died on March 26 at the age of 86 due to health problems that had made her mobility difficult in recent months. To date she had been the executor of her husband’s work but after her death no will of hers was found.
“Your trusted notary does not have a will. No one in the close circle among whom we consulted knows the will. If a will is found at the time of entering your house, that will be taken, but the chances are very low,” Soto acknowledged this week in a Press conference.
The legacy of Borges and Kodama has two floors in the Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires, and the house of the Borges family in the Palermo neighborhood, where the Foundation works. But beyond the real estate, the value was found in all the literary work, of which Kodama was the universal heir, as well as the medals, decorations and distinctions received by the writer throughout his career, among which there are manuscripts originals of his work, drawings of his authorship and his personal library, among many other assets of high cultural, historical and patrimonial value.
The lawyer Soto, who was his legal representative from 2001 until his death and is part of the management of the Borges Foundation, went so far as to ask the Justice to declare the estate vacant in order to designate a curator to protect the writer’s heritage and an administrator to take charge of the collection of rights and payments of obligations derived from his work.
Kodama had, according to Argentine media, a brother who died in 2017 without descendants, according to the lawyer’s inquiries. “MarÃa once mentioned a brother, Jorge, with whom she had no relationship. We searched and two Jorge Kodama appeared, both deceased, but they could have children or even grandchildren who, if they appeared, could inherit MarÃa Kodama,” he said.
If Borges’s work had fallen into the hands of the Argentine State, after ten years had passed without anyone claiming those assets, the Executive would have the power to auction it off.
