A Spanish court has issued an order to exhume the body of legendary artist Salvador Dali, almost a quarter of a century after he passed away.
Salvador Dali was well known both for his eccentric art and his eccentric lifestyle. He was not known to have any children, but one Spanish woman claims that she is likely Dali’s child.
The only problem is that she cannot prove her claims, since Dali passed away in 1989 at the age of 85.
The woman makes her living as a professional tarot card reader, so perhaps she could prove her paternity by reading the cards. However, she refuses to do such a self-reading. Instead, she has asked the Spanish courts to intervene.
A judge found enough basis for her claims, that Dali’s body has been ordered to be exhumed from its current resting place underneath a theater in Dali’s hometown so DNA testing can be performed, as the Washington Post reports in “Judge in Spain orders Salvador Dali’s body exhumed for paternity test.”
It is not clear what the woman hopes to gain from the testing. Dali’s estate has long been closed and all of his valuable artwork donated to the Spanish government.
Even though the artwork is valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, it is unlikely the woman could lay claim to any of that money. For her part, she seems uncertain of what she wants, if Dali does turn out to be her father.
She has only stated that she wants “what corresponds to her.”
It is not unheard of to reopen an estate or exhume a body to prove that the deceased had a previously unknown child. In this case, however, it probably is not going to do any good for the woman, beyond learning whether Dali really was her father.
Reference: Washington Post (June 26, 2017) “Judge in Spain orders Salvador Dali’s body exhumed for paternity test.”
