Documentary film “The sudden inheritance”: lawyers of the law firm “BIEL” won the case, which seemed hopeless

TV channel TVC showed a film dedicated to inheritance disputes. One of the stories is the case of inheritance of icons collection of Michael de Bouar to the value of 60 million dollars, which was successfully resolved after entry into the process of the lawyers of the law firm “BIEL.” It is noteworthy that the law firm “BIEL” was involved when the client had lost all the proceedings, and there had been no hope for a positive outcome.

Inheritance disputes are quite costly, and not only in monetary terms or in respect of applied efforts and emotional experience. Very often, heirs are faced with the choice: property or conscience. And decisions taken by them often do not depend on the value of the property, and conflicts between the pretenders to inheritance are so acute that lead to tragedies. Does anyone need, after all, such a Pyrrhic victory? This is the main idea of the documentary film, showed by the TVC channel. Examples demonstrated by the filmmakers in their study are bright and diverse: these are disputes of the heirs of artist Alexander Porokhovshchikov; Russian industrialist Morozov; “Chocolate King” of pre-revolutionary Russia entrepreneur Abrikosov and other famous persons. But in this list there is a special case of the icons collection of Michael de Bouar — and not only due to its high cost.

Michael Evgenievich de Bouar died not long before one of the most important events in his biography — an exhibition of icons, which collection he formed during 40 years. Having three children from different marriages, shortly before his death, he married for the sixth time. He chose his own nurse Tatyana Samokhvalova. She was in the middle of a war for inheritance, since she had the legal right to it as a widow. However, there were also other pretenders to the collection: the children of de Bouar, and his previous wife Lyubov Elizavetina, together with whom part of the collection was amassed. This fact gave her some chances to come into inheritance together with the children of the former spouse, especially since she was the one who knew where, in fact, the collection was. However, there were no documents confirming participation of Lyubov Vladimirovna in the purchase of icons: this is mostly a “black” market, and usually it is not customary to execute transactions as required by law. Therefore, she lost all proceedings concerning the dispute over this part of the inheritance.

But if you are convinced that the truth is on your side, you should never give up: finally Elizavetina took advantage of the support of the lawyers from the law firm “BIEL”. After their intervention and careful consideration of all nuances of the situation the only correct solution was developed: the parties settled for an amicable agreement; the collection will not be split between the heirs and will remain in Russia. And though this decision was not easy; the price of it was a deep conflict between people, each of whom had to endure many unpleasant moments, and then to make certain concessions to each other, we can acclaim the triumph of justice. After all, icons, in addition to the property, have no less artistic, cultural, historical and cultic value. Now they, owing to the professionalism of the lawyers and triumph of common sense, remained in Russia and will soon come into view of visitors of one of the Russian museums.