Bioy’s Library Arrives at the National Library

Marval, O’Farrell & Mairal, through a team led by Patricia López Aufranc and Claudia Paluszkiewicz, and with the participation of Luciana Collia y Rodrigo López Lapeña, under the firm’s pro-bono initiative, advised in the implementation and structuring of the purchase and subsequent donation of the Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo Library, which was abundantly annotated by Borges, to the Mariano Moreno National Library. 

A group of benefactors acquired the Library from Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo’s heirs in order to immediately donate it to the Mariano Moreno National Library. The closing took place on September 19, 2017. It required the coordination between multiple stakeholders, including twelve donors and four sellers. This library has an incalculable cultural and historical value, and contains among its more than 17,000 volumes the first editions of the works of the authors, and copies with personal notes by the authors and by Borges. The director of the National Library, Alberto Manguel, emphasized that it is "the most important private library in Argentina".

This marks an important cultural moment, as it is the last great privately-held library, and it is now a part of public heritage. Marval, O’Farrell & Mairal is proud to have played a small part in the incorporation of a treasure of this magnitude into the Nation’s legacy.