An American artist born in Italy, who we will call Emanuele A., died in Paris in 2013. In a will that was written rather unclearly, he named his wife, an American journalist, as his universal devisee.

However, one sentence in the will caught his lawyer’s attention. It referred to a possible “daughter who might come forward” and who should be “denied all rights to his work”.

The artist’s widow ended up admitting that there was a daughter who had been born well before she married Emanuele.

At one point she had lived in the United States and had been in contact with her father once after discovering his career as an artist on a US TV show.

After that, they were never in contact again.

In agreement with the notary, the widow’s lawyer decided to appoint ADD&Associés to find the daughter about whom we knew almost nothing, except that she was born in Berlin in 1945.

We immediately realised that our job would not only involve finding her, but also in making sure that Emanuele A. had not left any other children who would be entitled to a reserved share and would thus rank alongside his wife.

After a real struggle across Europe and the US, after cross checking tons of civil status information and facts, and after following her trace from town to town, we eventually located her living in a mobile home on the west coast.

Our research allowed us to conclude that she was Emanuele A’s only daughter.

The inheritance could then be settled for the benefit of the artist’s widow and his only daughter whom we represented.