AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The University of Texas is refusing to disclose what it paid for the archive of Colombian novelist and Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
And the university is asking the state attorney general for permission to keep the price and the contract with his family secret.
The school’s purchase of the archive has created controversy in Colombia and Mexico, where critics have questioned why it would reside in a country the writer often criticized.
His family insists the collection wasn’t put out to the highest bidder and was offered to the university’s Harry Ransom Center because of its reputation as a world-class literary archive.
The Associated Press requested a copy of the contract, citing Texas’ open records law. The school said Wednesday it will seek legal permission to withhold the document.
