Salvador Dalí’s Body to Be Exhumed to Resolve Paternity Suit

Spanish judge orders exhumation over claim by fortune-teller

June 26, 2017 1:15 pm
Judge Orders Exhumation of Salvador Dalí's Body
Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali, 1964. (Terry Fincher/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

No, this isn’t some creepy outtake from Un Chien Andalou.

A Spanish judge has ordered the exhumation of Salvador Dalí‘s body in order to confirm whether the famed artist had a secret daughter, according London’s Telegraph newspaper.

The woman, Pilar Abel, a fortune-teller who hails from Girona, Spain, alleges that Dalí had a “clandestine love affair” with her mother in 1955, and she is the product of that tryst. Abel also refers to herself as “Dalí without the mustache.”

In 2015, Spanish courts allowed her to compare her DNA to that of Dalí’s death mask—but there wasn’t enough genetic material on it for a definitive genetic comparison. Hence, the current court order.

There is more at stake than just bragging rights: If her paternity is confirmed, Abel could stand to inherit about $336 million, or a 25 percent share of the Dalí estate.

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