Paternity Controversy: Salvador Dalí Remains to be Exhumed

Black and white portrait of the Spanish artist and Surrealist icon Salvador Dalí with Babou the Ocelot, and cane. The artist’s remains will be exhumed to resolve Paternity controversy. Photo: Roger Higgins.

ART NEWS

To resolve the paternity controversy that Spanish artist and Surrealist icon Salvador Dalí had an illegitimate child, a Spanish court has ordered his remains exhumed.

BY KAZAD

SPAIN-In what seems like a scene from the Maury Show, a Spanish court is now trying to find out if Salvador Dalí fathered an illegitimate child. Since 2007, Pilar Abel Martínez has been claiming that Dalí was her biological father and fighting to be acknowledged as his daughter.

Of late the paternity controversy has become so intense that the courts had to step in. In order to end the issue, a Spanish court Thursday ordered that Salvador Dalí’s remains be exhumed for a DNA test.

Is Salvador Dalí the Father?

The DNA will hopefully resolve this question. According to Pilar Abel Martínez, her mother had an affair with Salvador Dalí in 1955 in Port-Lligat, where the Spanish artist and Surrealist icon lived and worked during this period. Port-Lligat, a small coastal village in northern Catalonia was home to the eccentric artist for several years.

Pilar Abel Martínez was born on February 1956, a year after the claimed affair. Dalí was married at this time to Elena Dmitrievna Diakonova also known as Gala. The couple had no children.

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If the DNA test confirms that Salvador Dalí is the father of Pilar Abel Martínez, she could be entitled to part of the artist’s estate, which was left to the Spanish state after his death in 1989.Although it is uncertain when Salvador Dalí’s remains will be exhumed, it is expected that it will soon since there is an urgency to end this Paternity controversy. Meanwhile, The Dalí

Although it is uncertain when Salvador Dalí’s remains will be exhumed, it is expected that it will soon since there is an urgency to end this Paternity controversy. Meanwhile, The Dalí Foundation is opposing the court order and appealing the order to exhume Dalí’s remains. “Our internal legal team, together with the Roca Junyent, S.L.P office are working on this appeal in coordination with the State Attorney,” The Dalí Foundation said.