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It's not clear to me what catastrophe would happen in the real world if you just went ahead and published the work.
If the book is a money maker, you could lose everything if an heir is discovered and he sues for royalties owed.
But if no heir is discovered, who would stop you?
And if the right is owned by the state, is anyone aware of a case in which the state demanded the publication be halted and subsequently refused to allow the publication of the work? I guess it's possible, but I would be interested to learn of such a case.
I suspect that in the real world this would be a case of, "It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission."
The scenario in this thread, and we saw this a couple of years ago in another thread about orphaned works, is the idea that no one claims to own the copyright, but the world will end if you go ahead and publish and then a rights holder comes forward later. I believe that in that case you would have to pay damages in the amount of the royalties you have earned to that point. As long as you don't spend the money, I don't see a problem.
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