Cantinflas's son and nephew fought over his films on the strength of a deathbed paper, and the family crypt was broken open in 2018

Mario Moreno, known as Cantinflas, died in Mexico City on 20 April 1993, aged 81. His ashes went to the family crypt at the Panteón Español. His adopted son, Mario Arturo Moreno Ivanova, claimed the rights to his films as universal legitimate heir. His nephew, Eduardo Moreno Laparade, held a paper he said Cantinflas signed "in articulo mortis", at the point of death, ceding him the rights to 39 films. El Tiempo reported in 2011 that the dispute was still running. The nephew won twice before the son prevailed on appeal^†. Columbia Pictures, which said it had bought rights to 34 films about four decades earlier, kept them after eight years of litigation, in a decision of 2 June 2001^†. The son died in 2017^†. On the night of 7 August 2018 the crypt was broken into. Emilio Morales, spokesman for Tita Marbez, alleged that Abril del Moral, the son's first wife, entered without authorisation and that walls were torn down, and filed a complaint against her and the cemetery for negligence; the outcome is not recorded in the sources found. Marbez had planned to move the remains of "Don Mario, Valentina and Mario Arturo" from the crypt, which also holds other family members.