Short answer. Yes, if the safekeeping was free. Article 1995 provides that a gratuitous deposit is extinguished upon the death of either the depositor or the depositary. A paid deposit does not end this way — it survives death and binds the keeper's estate until the arrangement is otherwise brought to a close.
What the law says
In case of a gratuitous deposit, upon the death of either the depositor or the depositary
Civil Code, Article 1995 — Extinguishment of Deposit. Read the full provision →
What the law says
Upon the loss or destruction of the thing deposited
Civil Code, Article 1995 — Extinguishment of Deposit. Read the full provision →
A free deposit ends with a death; a paid one does not
A deposit is the arrangement by which one person hands a thing to another for safekeeping, to be returned on demand. Article 1995 lists the ways it ends, and one of them is specific to a free deposit: In case of a gratuitous deposit, upon the death of either the depositor or the depositary. The reason is that a gratuitous deposit rests on personal trust and confidence — you left the thing with this particular person because you trusted him, and the law does not force that relationship onto his heirs, nor yours onto him. Where money changed hands the calculation is different.
What happens to your things when the keeper dies
Extinguishment does not mean your property is lost — it means the safekeeping relationship is over and the thing must be returned. On the depositary's death the duty to give the thing back passes to his heirs, who hold it not as a continuing deposit but as property that is not theirs and must be surrendered to you. The practical difficulty is usually proof: showing the heirs that the item now in the estate is yours, left for safekeeping, and never a gift or a sale. A receipt, an inventory or any writing describing the arrangement is worth far more than memory here.
A paid safekeeping survives, and loss of the thing is separate
If you paid the keeper — a warehouse, a storage company, a bank's safe-deposit service — the deposit is onerous, not gratuitous, and Article 1995 does not extinguish it on death. It continues against the keeper's business or estate on the agreed terms. The first ground on the same list, Upon the loss or destruction of the thing deposited, is a different matter entirely: it ends the deposit because there is nothing left to return, and whether anyone must answer for that loss then turns on whether the keeper was at fault rather than on anyone's death.
What settles it in a dispute
Two questions decide these cases. First, was the safekeeping free or paid — because only the free kind ends automatically on a death. Second, what exactly was the arrangement, since heirs confronted with a valuable in the estate will often argue it was given or sold rather than merely kept. Written terms answer both at once. If a keeper has died and you are dealing with the family or the executor, raise your claim to the specific thing early and in writing, before the estate is distributed and the item becomes far harder to trace.