the unimaginable warfare of succession involving tens of millions | EUROtoday
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“Owhere are the hundreds of millions of “Boléro” going? Point on July 14, 2000 by devoting its entrance web page and a characteristic to the unimaginable succession of one of many best-known French composers of classical music. Twenty-four years later, whereas the movie Bolero by Anne Fontaine, in theaters since March 6, seems to be again on the creation of the piece in 1928 by Maurice Ravel, the story continues to be not over. One would have thought that the arrival of the extraordinarily well-known crescendo within the public area, on 1er May 2016, was going to finish the collection, but it surely didn't occur. Let's rewind.
Maurice Ravel died on December 28, 1937 in Paris from a degenerative illness. Aged 62, he has no kids, so his brother Édouard inherits every little thing. In 1954, Édouard and his spouse had been victims of a automobile accident on the highway to Lourdes. They then name on a pair to assist them. Jeanne Taverne, button maker, but additionally vendor of canaries and canaries, turns into the couple's nurse and masseuse. Her husband, Alexandre, a former miner and hairdresser, turns into their driver. When Édouard's spouse died in 1956, the couple took up residence in the home in Saint-Jean-de-Luz.
A 12 months later, throughout the celebrations of the 20e anniversary of the loss of life of Maurice Ravel, Édouard publicly expressed his need to cede 80% of the copyright to the City of Paris for the creation of a Nobel Prize in music; a reception in his honor will even be organized at metropolis corridor after the announcement.
36 million francs in rights for 10 years
But, again in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, about-face, Édouard made Jeanne Taverne his common legatee. A plan for a wedding between them – the Taverne couple fairly fittingly divorced a number of months earlier than – is even on the desk. Finally, Édouard died in April 1960. Without descendants, it was Jeanne Taverne, rapidly remarried to Alexandre, who inherited the copyright and property of Maurice Ravel – aside from the Belvédère, Montfort-l' home. Amaury the place the composer lived his final sixteen years, bequeathed to the Réunion des musées nationaux by Édouard to make a museum, which may nonetheless be visited right this moment.
Then enter Marc and Marcelle Perrin, cousins of Maurice, who sue the Tavernes for “capture of inheritance”. During the ten years that the process lasts, Sacem blocks the sums. In 1970, the plaintiffs had been definitively dismissed in cassation. Jeanne having died in 1964, it was Alexandre who inherited. For the ten frozen years, the ball represents 36 million francs.
The Jean-Jacques Lemoine system
The finish of the process marks the looks of an enigmatic character, delivered to gentle by Irène Inchauspé's investigation in 2000 in Point : Jean-Jacques Lemoine. Former authorized director of Sacem, signatory for the group in 1941 of the act of spoliation of “Jewish” copyrights, he turned, in 1969, lawyer and advisor to Alexandre Taverne. The two males assault Durand Editions, holders of Maurice Ravel's catalog, to name into query the outdated contract which granted 75% of the file rights to the writer and 25% to the composer. The case is gained by Alexandre Taverne, the rights might be shared 50/50.
Jean-Jacques Lemoine will then arrange a tax optimization system in a number of tax havens. A montage revealed by Point in 2000 and the ramifications of which had been solely recognized throughout the Paradise Papers revelations. In the meantime, Alexandre has remarried his late spouse's manicurist: Georgette. He died in 1973, his spouse inherited and, upon her loss of life in 2012, the rights handed to his daughter Évelyne Pen de Castel Sogny. She is subsequently the daughter of the second spouse of the husband of Ravel's brother's masseuse who, even right this moment, is the beneficiary of the composer's work.
It is unattainable to know precisely what Ravel's copyright represented. The investigation of Point of 2000 spoke of a determine between 10 and 15 million francs per 12 months. In 2016, Le Figaro talked about 1,000,000 euros per 12 months. “The figures are confidential, but the “Boléro” was one of many hits of classical music and subsequently generated vital royalties, however a lot much less in recent times,” explains to Point David El Sayegh, deputy common director of Sacem, requested about this “unprecedented succession for such an emblematic work”. In 2024, the Sacem M lawyere Josée-Anne Bénazéraf estimates royalties at a median of 135,507 euros per 12 months between 2011 and 2016.
Because virtually ninety-six years after the creation of the Bolero, his succession nonetheless shakes the partitions of Sacem. From this standpoint too, Ravel's work had an unprecedented trajectory. Upon the composer's loss of life, copyright safety was offered for 50 years. A period to which have to be added the extension of the Second World War, 8 years and 120 days. Then, on July 3, 1985, the copyright regulation was promulgated which prolonged the time period of safety for musical works to 70 years. Its adoption owes a lot to the persuasive pressure of Jean-Manuel de Scarano. Producer within the early Seventies of the Santa Esmeralda hit “Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood” and proprietor since 1982 of the Durand editions catalog, these which share the rights to the works of Maurice Ravel. The entry into the general public area of Bolero is subsequently lastly scheduled at 1er May 2016.
New heirs enter the scene
This entry might be finished properly however not with out a (remaining?) twist. On May 2, 2016, Le Figaro broadcasts that new heirs have come ahead to demand the extension of conservation within the personal area. The descendants of Alexandre Benois, painter and decorator, declare that he’s the “co-creator” of the Bolero. The piece was in truth created within the type of a ballet as informed within the movie by Anne Fontaine. “They came to see us two months before this happened,” says David El Sayegh. They claimed that that they had written to us ten years in the past, however we by no means discovered a hint of this letter. »
The Ravel property is becoming a member of the method, which might make it doable to reintegrate the composer's work into the personal area till 2039, Benois having died in 1960. There is even speak of additionally associating as a “co-author” the primary choreographer of the ballet Bronislava Nijinska, died in 1972, which might prolong the rights till 2051. Sacem twice rejected the request.
But two years later, the administration firm was summoned earlier than the Nanterre High Court by Benois' rights holders who introduced a set of historic paperwork to help their request. A listening to was lastly held on February 14, 2024 to find out whether or not or not the Bolero is a collaborative work and whether or not Sacem was entitled to refuse the registration of two new beneficiaries.
“We can’t name into query the ethical rights of two artists who by no means claimed that that they had collaborated on the Bolero, argues David El Sayegh. While the worldwide success of Bolero was rapid, they’d have had loads of time to assert their half on this creation. It is the lure of revenue that motivates this authorized motion, however it is usually insulting to the reminiscence of the 2 protagonists and specifically Ravel. » Next act of the unimaginable succession with the deliberation, June 24.
https://www.lepoint.fr/culture/bolero-de-ravel-l-incroyable-guerre-de-succession-a-coups-de-millions-09-03-2024-2554593_3.php