Dali's remains to be exhumed in paternity claim

PanARMENIAN.Net - A Spanish court has ordered that the remains of Salvador Dali be exhumed after a woman who claims to be the daughter of the world-famous artist filed a paternity claim, AFP reports.

The Madrid court said Monday, June 26 the exhumation aimed "to get samples of his remains to determine whether he is the biological father of a woman from Girona (in northeastern Spain) who filed a claim to be recognised as the daughter of the artist."

"The DNA study of the painter's corpse is necessary due to the lack of other biological or personal remains with which to perform the comparative study," it added.

The court said the decision could be appealed.

A spokesman for the court said the woman who claims to be Dali's daughter is called Pilar Abel, but refused to give any further details.

Dali is buried in his eponymous museum in Figueras, a city in the northeastern region of Catalonia where he died in January 1989 of heart failure after a life marked by the genius of his work and his own eccentricities and extravagances.

According to a media report in Catalonia's La Vanguardia daily, Abel is a psychic.

She says her mother had an affair with Dali when she worked as a nanny for another family that vacationed in Cadaques, a fishing village of white houses where the painter lived and worked for years with his muse Gala.