Surreal start to case of paternal identity

Figueras, Spain: Salvador Dali’s remains are to be exhumed on Thursday from his Spanish hometown in an effort to test a fortune teller’s claims the renowned surrealist is her father.

The artist’s body is buried in the elaborate museum of his work Dali designed himself in the northeastern Spanish town of Figueras, where he was born over 110 years ago.

Pilar Abel, a 61-year-old who long worked as a psychic in Catalonia, says her mother had a relationship with the artist when she worked in Cadaques, a picturesque port where the painter lived for years.

If Abel is confirmed as Dali’s only child, she could be entitled to a slice of at least 25 percent of the huge fortune and heritage of one of the most celebrated and prolific painters of the 20th century, said the woman’s lawyer Enrique Blanquez.

The Salvador Dali Foundation had tried to fight off the exhumation with an appeal, but there was not enough time for all parties to present their case, a court spokesman said.

Barring some “administrative or logistical surprise”, the exhumation will go ahead, he said.

Authorities will begin removing the over one-tonne slab covering the tomb of the eccentric artist, who died in 1989 with no known child heirs, after visitors have cleared out for the day from the Dali Theatre-Museum.

Forensic scientists will take DNA samples in the form of bone or tooth fragments directly from the grave where Mr Dali was buried and they will then be sent to Madrid to undergo the necessary tests.

Ms Abel has already provided a saliva sample for comparison, with results expected within a matter of weeks.

The museum, a major tourist site that drew over 1.1 million visitors last year, will be covered in some places with cloth to prevent drones from capturing images of the exhumation.

“I just want to know the truth. I am very positive, very happy,” Abel told reporters at a Madrid hotel. Ms Abel is from the city of Figueras, like Mr Dali and she said she would often see him in the streets.