Salvador Dali's body to be exhumed for paternity suit

CAIRO – 28 June 2017: A Madrid court ordered the exhumation of the legendary Spanish artist Salvador Dali’s remains in order to take samples for a paternity suit on Monday.

The order follows a paternity suit filed by Spanish woman Pilar Abel Martinez claiming to be Dali’s daughter. The 61 year old tarot reader from Girona claims that her mother, a former housemaid, conducted an undercover affair with the renowned artist in 1955.

The Madrid Supreme Court declared in a statement that after procuring samples from Dali’s body they will be able to determine whether the Spanish artist is Martinez’s biological father or not through DNA tests.

However the court’s decision was not met with universal approval. A statement released by the Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation announced that they were “Preparing an appeal to oppose the carrying out of this exhumation, an appeal that will be presented in the coming days." The foundation is a private institution concerned with protecting and promoting the artist’s work.

Dali is a Spanish surrealist artist who was born in Figueres, Spain in 1904. He was famous for his amazing and provocative images in his surrealist work. Dali’s skills were influenced by the Renaissance masters.

Dali completed his masterpiece ‘The Persistence of Memory’ in August 1931. His considerable artistic repertoire also encapsulates the mediums of film, sculpture and photography. Dali died of heart failure in 1989 at the age of 84.