The French fashion designer died in 2020, without children, direct heirs or valid will. On November 2, a judge will decide who gets the 800 million euros. There are 22 nephews fighting with each other.
Founder of the ready-to-wear concept, considered a “futuristic designer” and considered one of the most important names in European haute couture. Pierre Cardin was well aware of the reputation that followed him and strove to demonstrate it, despite claiming that “everyone knew him.” To whom he would leave this legacy, he decided from the beginning that it would be none of his business: “After my death? I don’t think much about it. I didn’t organize anything. Even nothing,” he said in an interview with Paris Match, cited by The New York Times, three months before his death, in December 2020, at the age of 98.
French designer Pierre Cardin dies
In fact, the famous French designer, who never had children and had no wife, was pressured by his family to address the matter, but every time he heard the phrase ‘Let’s go to the notary’ he found a last-minute excuse. . “I couldn’t imagine anyone replacing him,” explained Louis Cardin-Edwars, Pierre Cardin’s great-nephew, who worked with him for 20 years.
Such indifference towards the inheritance meant that there was not a single substitute, but 22 fighting for it. On one side is a great-nephew who believes that a handwritten piece of paper is enough to prove that he is the legitimate heir. On the other hand, there are the other 21, who accuse him of violence against the elderly and forgery of documents. The truth is that, Almost three years after his death, the 800 million euros at which the company he founded in 1950 is valued remains ownerless.
It all started with Rodrigo Basílicati-Cardin, the 52-year-old grandnephew who took the reins of the Pierre Cardin Evolution company, as general director, and the artistic direction of the Pierre Cardin brand, shortly before the death of its founder. who was born in 1922.
Born and raised in Padua, Italy, and trained in civil engineering, he met his uncle at the age of 25, at an art exhibition in Venice. “He told me, ‘Tell me about yourself,’ and two hours of conversation followed,” which ended with an invitation to live with him in his “palace.”
Pierre Cardin, who fled with his parents from Italy to France, during the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini, decided to integrate Basilicati, as it was called then, into his company with the task of supervising the fountain that supplied mineral water to the Maxim restaurant. . Little by little he rose through the ranks, and ended up being named chief administrative officer in 2018, the year in which he added Cardin to his name.
This gave him great importance in the company, but not “the right to sign the contract or sell anything,” Jean-Louis Riviére, lawyer for Pierre Cardin’s four great-nieces, assured the same North American newspaper.
At the end of 2020, when his uncle became infected with Covid-19 and became seriously ill, Basilicati received a power of attorney that gave him control of the company. Something “suspicious” for the lawyer, since “Cardin was in a coma at that time”, something that his great-nephew denies.
Despite guaranteeing that the document was signed in the presence of a notary and two doctors who said he was lucid, his great-nieces do not believe him. This resulted in a complaint for violence against the elderly, fraud, falsification of documents and breach of trust.
Patricia, Laurence, Régine and Marie-Christine are four of the 21 cousins (Pierre Cardin was the youngest of 13 siblings) who compete for the designer’s inheritance and who intend to sell the company and keep his money.
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The four sisters do not believe Basilicati-Cardin’s versionwhich is based on a will written by hand on November 10, 2016, signed ‘PC’, which he discovered last year in his apartment, to claim the entire inheritance.
The great-nieces claim that since this was not found with the designer’s other assets and was not signed under the supervision of the notary, it cannot be valid. And, in March, a judge ruled in his favor, a decision that the cousin appealed.
“After Pierre Cardin’s death, some questions arose as to why it took a year and a half to draw up a will. The one from 2016 is handwritten, signed with the initials PC and says I am the only heir. There is no law that says how to sign,” Basilicati reacted in June, recalls the newspaper El Mundo.
On November 2, the cousins return to court to dispute the inheritance, hoping it will be the last time they sit there. “There are two forms of resolution. Either Basilicati-Cardin’s will is invalidated and my clients and his cousins are legitimized as heirs, or it is confirmed and he officially remains in the company.”
There is a fundamental issue for which I was denounced for manipulation and abuse of trust, but I trust in justice and everything will be proven. Graphologists considered the writing to be relaxed and clear. My uncle was alone. “If they had coerced him, it would not have been like this,” added the great-nephew.
Although the will is the greatest proof that he is the only heir, Basilicati-Cardin also supports his theory in the designer’s statements before his death in 2019. “My uncle was seen at Maxim’s restaurant, the present a young man named Rodrigo, as the person who would continue his work”he revealed, recalling another interview, from 2003, in which Pierre Cardin highlighted it as “his continuation.”
However, this is not the only will that exists. Emmanuel Beffy, who worked with Pierre Cardin overseeing real estate and projects in Asia, also claims to have one from 2013.
In this case, the product description is simple. Beffy gets the mansion in Normandy, Marie-Christine and Louis Cardin-Edwards (who was “inelegantly” removed from the company with the promotion of Basilicati-Cardin) with an apartment and all the furniture (cars, jewelry, works of art). art). and bank accounts) went to Beffy and Basilicati-Cardin.
This could be the essential key for the transfer of the designer’s assets to his great-nephews, but, despite being signed and dated, it was not registered before a notary. For this reason, Beffy is waiting for November 2 “to see what happens.”
Source: Observadora
