Pavarotti Left a Messy Estate

Luciano Pavarotti, the superstar tenor, lived large but not neatly. Once believed to have a net worth of £200 million (close to $400 million), Pavarotti died leaving a muntain of debts, according to this story in the Guardian.

The Italian tenor died almost £7m in the red, his estate has revealed. The debts emerged after weeks of careful combing through bank accounts and shareholdings held by Pavarotti, who died last September of pancreatic cancer, aged 71. They were filed in a court in Modena last week by notary Giorgio Cariani.

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Under Italian law, 50 per cent of Pavarotti's estate will be split equally between his four daughters, with a further 25 per cent given to his widow. Pavarotti allocated the final quarter to Mantovani, who worked as his secretary during his first marriage. He left his wife of 35 years, Adua, to live with her in 1996.

With the publication of the estate, Pavarotti's American assets, reportedly including three Manhattan apartments, works of art and bank accounts, could again fall under the spotlight. The assets were placed in a trust for Mantovani by Pavarotti in July and it is not yet clear how they will be included in the division of his wealth envisaged by Italian law. Their value is not mentioned in the new document.

An Italian magistrate said in October he would look into the trust after a notary present at the signing was quoted as questioning the lucidity of the ailing Pavarotti, who was taken to hospital in mid-August to be treated for a chest infection. But Luciano Bovicelli, a doctor who witnessed the signing, said the singer was fully aware. 'Luciano was absolutely in control of what he was doing, he was very lucid and present,' Bovicelli said.