Court battle over Lorca manuscript

January 18, 2006 The manuscript, thought lost for over 50 years, surfaced in 1999, when Mexican actress Manola Saavedra took it to Christie’s to be auctioned. It consists of 96 pages of typescript and 24 of manuscript, of poems written in 1929 on Lorca’s visit to New York.

Poeta en Nueva York, by many considered as Lorca’s magnum opus, captures the poet’s impressions of New York and his reaction to the Wall Street crash. Lorca delivered the manuscript to his publisher’s office in Madrid in July 1936, writes The Guardian, "leaving a note saying he would come back the next day. He never did." The poet was murdered shortly afterwards by Franco’s militia. The publisher moved to Mexico, where the manuscript eventually ended up in the hands of Saavedra, as a gift.

After she took it to Christies, the auction if the document originally scheduled for November 20 1999 was stopped when the Lorca heirs took out an injunction and claimed ownership. The ensuing legal battle seemed an unequal one, as The Guardian relates: on the one side the wealthy Lorca heirs, on the other a retired Mexican soap star with no resouces. However, last month the judge ruled that it was the publisher who originally owned the document, and consequently Saavedra’s ownership was legitimised. Last week the Lorca heirs decided not to appeal. Following the publicity around the trial, Christies now expects a bidding war for the manuscript.