IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Salvador Dali's Remains to Be Exhumed After Paternity Claim

A Madrid judge has ordered the remains of surrealist Spanish artist Salvador Dali to be exhumed in order to take DNA samples following a paternity claim.
Image: Dali's body to be exhumed to resolve paternity case
epa06051541 (FILE) - A June 1966 pictures shows Spanish artist Salvador Dali at his residence in Cadaques, Catalonia, northeastern Spain. The remains of Dali will be exhumated by order of a judge in order to obtain samples to determine the paternity of Pilar Abel, who has brought a paternity suit as his daughter on 26 June 2017. Dali died in Figueres, Spain on 23 January 1989. EPA/LAMA ONE TIME USE ONLY EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES/NO ARCHIVESLAMA / EPA
/ Source: Reuters

MADRID — A Madrid judge has ordered the remains of surrealist Spanish artist Salvador Dali to be exhumed in order to take DNA samples following a paternity claim by a woman from the north of Spain, the court said on Monday.

The court named the woman as Maria Pilar Abel, who is from the northeastern city of Girona. It said the DNA tests were necessary to make a genetic comparison with Dali due to a lack of other biological or personal remains.

Abel, born in 1956, claims her mother had an affair with the painter in the 1950s while she was working as a family employee and has been fighting to have Dali recognized as her father since 2007, according to El Pais newspaper.

She had three DNA tests but never received the results, she told the newspaper in an interview in 2015.

Dali, who died in 1989 aged 84, was a one of the most famous artists from the 20th century surrealist period. He painted pictures like the melting clocks in the 1931 work "The Persistence of Memory" but also turned his hand to movies, sculpture and advertising.

The eccentric artist, recognizable by his long, waxed mustache, was known for outrageous behavior such as giving lectures in an old-fashioned deep-sea diving suit and driving from Spain to Paris in a white Rolls Royce filled with cauliflowers.