There's a lot of info out there in the English language media, most of it confusing, re: Luciano Pavarotti's three wills. It's only fair, even if OC is no fan of the whole "Wheel Of Fortune" lawyer thing that's going on in his family since the great tenor's passing last month, to try to give our readers a recap.
So here it is.
Pavarotti, already very sick with cancer, wrote in December '06, by hand, a will (that only was made public yesterday by one of his adult daughter's lawyer) that essentially disinherited his wife Nicoletta Mantovani, splitting his fortune (worth several hundreds of millions of dollars) equally among his four daughters (three adult women from his first wife Adua, 4-year-old Alice by Nicoletta Mantovani) and leaving Mantovani the house in Pesaro and the full ownership of an Italian corporation (of arts management) own jointly by Pavarotti and Mantovani.
Only one thing in the big mess is clear: that testament from December '06 has been rendered null and void by more recent provisions. Let's see them.
Because the maestro -- for reasons we don't care about because there's only hearsay and shaky evidence regarding this key point, the "why" -- changed his mind: two wills have been added in 2007, and they radically alter the situation in favor of second wife Nicoletta Mantovani: in June 2007 and then on July 27, 2007 (about forty days before his death and two weeks before being hospitalized), Pavarotti dictated two wills -- against his own smalltown notary's advice -- that split his fortune by leaving only 12.5% each to his four daughters, while half of his money and properties to his wife Nicoletta Mantovani; because Italian law essentially requires that one must leave a sizable chunk of one's assets to one's sons and daughters, but since there is no such provision in US law one of these two more recent wills, the "American Will" (pdf file via the excellent Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, that has been leading the coverage of the financial imbroglio) sets up a trust and leaves most of Pavarotti's fortune (royalties, stocks, bank accounts, not to mention the three Central Park South apartments and a vast art collection still to be professionally appraised) to his wife Nicoletta (a decision that obviously the older daughters have called "seriously prejudicial" to their interests).
Tu sum it up: Mantovani seems to have been for all practical purposes disinherited in December '06; six and then seven months later, she gets first 50% of her husband fortune, and then she gets the American trust that could easily be interpreted by a US judge to give her even deeper control over the bulk of the Pavarotti fortune.
It remains to be seen in the inevitable lawsuit (in a US court) if the "American will" can indeed go clearly against the provisions of Italian law: obviously the three older daughters' legal team would like to have the American will declared null and void by a US judge, because if they have to get 12.5% each, it's financially catastrophic that an American will subtracts (by moving most of the money under US jurisdiction) tens and even possibly hundreds of millions of dollars from the 100% their 12.5% will come from. (ed: the "American will" seems to accomplish a brilliant legal sleight of hand, taking a huge chunk of the Pavarotti fortune out of the "Italian" 100% that the daughters get to share by right according to Italian law).
To make things more complicated, the status of Mantovani's citizenship (it is doubtful -- but unknown for certain -- that she ever gained dual Italian/US citizenship during her marriage to Pavarotti) apparently could also be a factor in the American judge's decision (or so the older daughters legal team hopes -- ed. Mantovani's apparent lack of US citizenship will be one of the reasons invoked by the older daughters' lawyers to render the "American will" null and void).
Nicoletta Mantovani's lawyers have quickly threatened to sue for slander anybody who spreads "lies" about the situation.
***update***
Big sisterly hugs to dearest La Cieca who takes the time to read -- and link! -- us, plus lo4ds of bonus points for the Gianni Schicchi shoutout.