Artist Salvador Dali's body ordered to be exhumed for Paternity Test

By Park Sae-jin Posted : June 27, 2017, 07:01 Updated : June 27, 2017, 07:01

The Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali's body was ordered to be exhumed for a paternity test. [Courtesy of Tanya Dobraya / Pixabay]


The Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali is indeed under a surreal circumstance. His body was ordered to be exhumed for a paternity test on Monday, 28 years after his death.

Pilar Abel Martinez from Girona, Spain claimed and appealed to the Madrid Court that she is a biological daughter of Salvador Dali. According to her assertion, Antonia Martinez, Abel's mother, and Salvador Dali had an affair during his marriage to his wife and muse, Gala. Dali was 51 years old and Martinez was 25 years old at the time. Martinez later married another man in her hometown, Figueres. 

To obtain sufficient DNA sample to settle this claim, the exhumation was unavoidable. However, Gala Dali Foundation is planning to repeal this decision.

If Pilar Abel is confirmed to be Dali's daughter, she can change her surname to Dali and gets 25% of rights over Dali's estate and his works.

As this paternity claim came to the spotlight, The story of Salvador and Gala Dali's marriage resurfaced. Gala was famously known as Dali's artistic muse and they tied the knot in a civil ceremony in 1934 and sanctified it in 1958 by the Vatican. Dali had a phobia of female genitalia due to early exposure to grotesque images of untreated STDs by his father, so the couple was in an open marriage allowing the couple to explore different alternatives. Gala stated in a castle in Girona and had a series of affairs. Dali was only allowed to visit his wife upon her invitation. Dali's sexual preference was questioned also throughout his life due to his close relationship with his friend and a poet, Federico Garcia Lorca. However, Dali denied this claim. He was said to be only engaged in masturbation because of his fear of physical contact. 









Kwak, Min Jung = abiel@ajunews.com
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