DNA samples taken from Salvador Dalí prove that a Spanish woman who wanted the iconic artist’s body exhumed is not his biological daughter, officials announced Thursday.
The Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation said that a court in Madrid notified its attorneys of the results after comparing the DNA samples those from Maria Pilar Abel Martinez, who claimed that Dalí was her father after he had an affair with a maid in 1955.
“It concludes that the results obtained ‘permits the exclusion of Salvador Dalí as the biological father of Maria Pilar Abel Martinez,’” the foundation announced in a statement obtained by The Post.
The foundation in Figueres, Spain, said the finding “comes as no surprise” — and blasted the “unusual and unjustified” court decision to exhume Dali’s body.
“The Foundation is pleased that this report puts an end to an absurd and artificial controversy, and that the figure of Salvador Dalí remains definitively excluded from totally groundless claims,” the statement read. “The Dalí Foundation is also pleased to be able to focus again on the management of its extraordinary artistic legacy and in the promotion of the work and figure of Salvador Dalí.”
A judge in Spain ordered Dalí’s remains to be exhumed in June following the woman’s claims. She took a DNA test in 2007 using skin and hair remnants retrieved from a ”death mask” of the painter, but the test wasn’t conclusive, The Guardian reported.
Dalí’s remains will soon be returned to the foundation.
The Gala-Dalí Foundation said in June that it would appeal the decision to exhume the artist’s body, but an attorney for Martinez told the Associated Press that the move would not stop the exhumation process.
Dalí was married to his muse, Gala, but the couple did not have children, although she had a daughter from a previous marriage, the Associated Press reports.