Maria Callas died without a valid will, her estranged husband and mother split her $8 million, and her ashes were stolen

Maria Callas died in her Paris apartment at 53. She left no signed later will, so her estate, reported at $8 million, would pass to her mother, Evangelia, and sister, Jackie, from whom she had long been estranged. Her former husband and manager, Giovanni Battista Meneghini, then produced a will she signed in 1954 naming him sole heir. French authorities sealed the apartment until the two sides agreed a 50/50 split out of court. Her pianist friend Vasso Devetzi arranged a fast cremation and persuaded the mother and sister to sign over power of attorney and more than $1 million to a Maria Callas Foundation. Jackie later said the foundation did not exist^†. The urn was stolen from the Père Lachaise columbarium in December 1977 and recovered a few hours later. The ashes were scattered at sea off Greece on 3 June 1979; accounts differ on whether off Skorpios or in the Aegean^†. Meneghini died in January 1981 and left everything to his housekeeper, Emma Roverselli. His relatives sued to annul that will and lost. In 2004 Sotheby's sold Callas jewels for an anonymous vendor. Roverselli died in January 2023 at 95.