A Spanish court today (26 June) has ordered that Salvador Dalí’s body be exhumed to determine whether he is the biological father of Pilar Abel Martínez. According to the Spanish newspaper El País, Abel has been fighting to be acknowledged as Dalí’s daughter since 2007.
Abel claims that her mother had an affair with the artist in 1955 in Port-Lligat, a small coastal village in northern Catalonia where Dalí lived and worked. Abel was born the following year in February 1956. Dalí was married to Gala at the time; the couple never had any children.
If Abel is the daughter of Dalí, Abel could make a claim towards the artist’s estate, which was left to the Spanish state following his death in 1989. No date has been set for the exhumation but Abel’s lawyer told the Spanish press that it could be as soon as next month.
“The Dalí Foundation is preparing an appeal to oppose this exhumation that will be lodged in the coming days,” a spokeswoman for the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí said in a statement. “Our internal legal team, together with the Roca Junyent, S.L.P office are working on this appeal in coordination with the State Attorney.”