Salvador Dalí’s body to be exhumed in paternity suit
Madrid court orders exhumation of Catalan painter to get samples for lawsuit filed by Girona woman claiming to be his daughter
A court in Madrid has ordered that the body of surrealist painter Salvador Dalí be exhumed to provide genetic samples in a paternity lawsuit. A Tarot card reader from Girona, Maria Pilar Abel, claims she is the biological daughter of the famous Catalan artist. According to Abel, Dalí met her mother in the 1950s when she worked for a family that often spent summers in Cadaqués, close to the painter’s home. The pair “had a friendship that developed into clandestine love,” claim the court documents filed by Abel.
The court ruled that obtaining DNA samples of the artist, who is buried in the Dalí Theatre and Museum in his hometown of Figueres, was “necessary” due to the lack of “biological remains or personal objects for the National Toxicology Institute to carry out the test.” Originally when the legal process began in November, the court considered taking DNA from a death mask of the painter, until it became clear that exhuming Dalí’s body would be the only way to obtain the material required for the suit.
Abel, who was born in 1956, a year after the affair is alleged to have happened, first made her claim in 2015. The court decision also confirmed that Abel underwent two inconclusive paternity tests in 2007. Her current suit was filed against the executors of the Dalí estate, the Spanish tax office and the Gala Dalí Foundation. The court said the decision could be appealed, but if Abel is eventually shown to be the artist’s biological daughter, she would be entitled to use his name and a part of his substantial estate.
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