A court in Spain has ordered the exhumation of the remains of Salvador Dali. This is necessary to continue hearings on the lawsuit of a woman who claims to be the only daughter of the world famous surrealist. If true, she would be entitled to a portion of the vast wealth and legacy of one of the most celebrated and prolific artists of the 20th century.
A court in Madrid said that Dalí's exhumation is necessary "to obtain samples of the remains to determine whether he is the biological father of a woman from Girona (in northeastern Spain) who filed a lawsuit to recognize her as the artist's daughter."
“The study of the DNA of the artist’s body is necessary due to the lack of other biological or personal remains with which to conduct comparative analysis", - it is said in the conclusion.
The Dalí Foundation, which manages the artist's legacy, said it would appeal "in the coming days" but did not elaborate.
Pilar Abel (left) with his 86-year-old mother Antonia Martínez de Haro in 2015. Photo: The New York Times
Clairvoyant Pilar Abel, 61, claims her mother had an affair with Dali while she was babysitting a family vacationing in Port Ligat, a tiny fishing village on the coast near Cadaqués. There the painter lived and worked for years with his muse Gala.
Pilar Abel Martinez was born on February 1, 1956 in the Catalan city of Figueres, she claims that her mother had a secret relationship with the artist in Port Ligat. In 1955, the mother moved to Castellón de Empurias, got married and after a while had a daughter.
According to Pilar, for the first time she heard that she was Dali's illegitimate daughter from her grandmother, the mother of the official father.
“Grandma told me: - I know that you are not the daughter of my son, I know that your father - great artist. And she said his name was Dali,” Abel told Catalan TV3 in 2015. She added that her mother later acknowledged the truth of these words.
In 2015, Pilar Abel filed the first lawsuit to establish paternity, but the court took her side only in June 2017. If the examination really proves that the great surrealist is her biological father, Pilar will be able to claim his name and copyright.
Left - Maria Pilar Abel Martinez, right - Salvador Dali.
The fortune teller likes to mimic the gestures and mannerisms of her supposed father and keeps repeating, "The only thing I'm missing is a mustache." In 2007 and 2008, she ran several DNA tests on the hair and skin left on Dalí's death mask, but the results were inconclusive.
Pilar's lawyer, Enrique Blanquez, told AFP that the affair "was known in the village and some people testified in front of a notary." The lawyer added that there is a certain woman "who worked for Dali, whom he paid to find out the fate of the plaintiff's mother."
Salvador Dali was born on May 11, 1904 in Figueres, into a bourgeois family. WITH early age showed interest in painting, and in 1922 he entered the Academy fine arts in Madrid.
He was expelled from there twice, but at the same time he developed his first artistic ideas together with poet Federico Garcia Lorca and director Luis Buñuel.
Soon Dali left for Paris, where he joined the surrealist movement, giving it a new breath and meaning with his work. Returning to Catalonia 12 years later, Dali invited to Cadaqués French poet Paul Eluard and his Russian wife Elena Ivanovna Dyakonova. This meeting was decisive in the fate of the artist...
Elena then became the lover, muse and life partner of the artist, receiving from him the nickname Gala. The couple never had children.
There is evidence that the artist was shy about his sexuality and was more of a voyeur than a participant in sexual games. In general, this topic is dark ...
Salvador Dali and Gala
After the death of Gala in 1982, Dali was broken both as a person and as an artist. He died seven years later on January 23, 1989, at the age of 85 from heart failure, and was buried at the Dalí Theater Museum in Figueres, as he willed.
He wanted his whole life and its manifestations to be available to the people, he wanted to be buried under a nameless slab on which people could walk. Now everyone can come to the crypt of the great surrealist.
The museum management tried to delay the exhumation. Mayor Martha Felip said that "even if you want to enforce the judgment, doing it on July 20 is almost impossible" and that it is "not such an easy thing to do.
She recalled that the artist rests in a crypt under a stone slab that weighs a ton. In addition, the building is listed as a National Cultural Interest. Thus, it is necessary to request permission to carry out work.
Initially, it was assumed that the exhumation process would begin at 9 am (10.00 Moscow time) on Thursday, but the court agreed to postpone the start of work until the evening, after the museum was closed to the public. That is, work will begin at 20.00 pm local time (21.00 Moscow time) and should be completed by Friday morning. The process will involve a group of forensic medical examination and representatives of the court.
Watch the ren.tv video in which Dali, who declared herself the daughter of Salvador, told why she sought exhumation
I agree with the reporter that in famous museum Salvador Dali will host the most scandalous performance in Catalonia... Experts and art historians are sure that Martinez is fighting for the truth, but is trying to win Dali's legacy.
Music: Viktor Zinchuk "Lonely in the Night"
In the Spanish city of Figueres, the body of the artist was exhumed at the end of July Salvador Dali. Criminologists reported that the remains were well preserved - hair and famous mustache surrealists were untouched by time. Dali's body was exhumed to establish family ties: a fortune teller from Girona Maria Pilar Abel Martinez stated that she may be an illegitimate daughter famous artist. We will tell you how Martinez achieves to be recognized as Dali's daughter.
Maria Martinez, a tarot card reader, claims her mother had an affair with Dali in 1955. She herself was born in 1956. The mother of a woman in the 1950s worked in the small Catalan town of Cadaqués, where Dali often visited. Martinez says that even as a child she was told that she was the daughter of an artist.
“Am I really the daughter of Salvador Dali? He's so ugly!" Martinez once told her mother. She replied that, of course, he was not handsome, but he had a special charm, and confirmed that she really got pregnant from the artist. Mother Martinez was then 25 years old, Dali - 51. Martinez herself met the artist several times on the streets of his hometown but didn't get close to him. She believes that her gift as a fortune teller comes from her biological father.
Martinez has repeatedly tried to prove that she is actually the daughter of Salvador Dali. However, so far she has not succeeded: a paternity test can only be carried out with the help of exhumation. Permission to exhume the body was issued in June 2017 by a court in Madrid, as no other biological samples with the artist's DNA remained.
Dali is buried under a concrete slab in a museum in his native Figueres. According to the artist's will, he had to be buried in such a way that people could walk on his grave. Dali's body was removed on the evening of July 19 and taken to the laboratory, where specialists took samples of the artist's teeth, bones and nails.
The opening of the grave was attended by Narcis Bardalet, who prepared Dali's body for burial in 1989 (the artist died at the age of 85), writes BBC. “When I took off the veil, I got emotional. I really wanted to see him - and was amazed, it was like a miracle. His mustache looked 10 out of 10, and his hair was kept exactly," he said.
The results of the DNA analysis are not yet known, it should take several weeks to complete. In the event that Maria Martinez still establishes kinship with Dali, she can inherit all of his property, which now belongs to the state. According to The Daily Telegraph, Dali's estate is estimated at about $300 million. Martinez's paternity DNA test alone will not be enough to claim the inheritance: she faces a lengthy lawsuit against the state.
Not everyone believes Martinez's words. Dali did not have children, he has repeatedly admitted that he suffers from impotence and eschews sex. With his wife Gala (Elena Dyakonova), they lived in an open marriage, his wife had many lovers, but Dali himself could not stand it when someone touched him. It is known that orgies were held in their house, but Dali did not participate in them, preferring to watch. As Dalí's biographer Ian Gibson points out, it's "utterly impossible" that Dalí, who was then already married to Gala, could have traditional relationship with any woman.
A court in Spain has ordered the exhumation of the remains of Salvador Dali.
This is necessary to continue hearings on the lawsuit of a woman who claims to be the only daughter of the world famous surrealist. If true, she would be entitled to a portion of the vast wealth and legacy of one of the most celebrated and prolific artists of the 20th century.
A court in Madrid said that Dalí's exhumation is necessary "to obtain samples of the remains to determine whether he is the biological father of a woman from Girona (in northeastern Spain) who filed a lawsuit to recognize her as the artist's daughter."
"The study of the DNA of the artist's body is necessary due to the lack of other biological or personal remains with which to conduct a comparative analysis," the conclusion says.
The Dali Foundation, which manages the artist's legacy,
said he would file an appeal “in the coming days”,
but did not elaborate on the details.
Pilar Abel (left) with his 86-year-old mother Antonia Martínez de Haro in 2015. Photo: The New York Times
Clairvoyant Pilar Abel, 61, claims her mother had an affair with Dali while she was babysitting a family vacationing in Port Ligat, a tiny fishing village on the coast near Cadaqués. There the painter lived and worked for years with his muse Gala.
Pilar Abel Martinez was born on February 1, 1956 in the Catalan city of Figueres, she claims that her mother had a secret relationship with the artist in Port Ligat. In 1955, the mother moved to Castellón de Empurias, got married and after a while had a daughter.
According to Pilar, for the first time she heard that she was Dali's illegitimate daughter from her grandmother,
mother of the official father.
“Grandma told me: - I know that you are not the daughter of my son, I know that your father is a great artist. And she said his name was Dali,” Abel told Catalan TV3 in 2015. She added that her mother later acknowledged the truth of these words.
In 2015, Pilar Abel filed the first lawsuit to establish paternity, but the court took her side only in June 2017.
If the examination really proves that the great surrealist is her biological father, Pilar will be able to claim his name and copyright.
Left - Maria Pilar Abel Martinez, right - Salvador Dali.
The fortune teller likes to mimic the gestures and mannerisms of her supposed father and keeps repeating, "The only thing I'm missing is a mustache." In 2007 and 2008, she ran several DNA tests on the hair and skin left on Dalí's death mask, but the results were inconclusive.
Pilar's lawyer, Enrique Blanquez, told AFP that the affair "was known in the village and some people testified in front of a notary." The lawyer added that there is a certain woman "who worked for Dali, whom he paid to find out the fate of the plaintiff's mother."
Salvador Dali was born on May 11, 1904 in Figueres, into a bourgeois family. From an early age he showed an interest in painting, and in 1922 he entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid.
He was expelled from there twice, but at the same time he developed his first artistic ideas together with the poet Federico Garcia Lorca and the director Luis Buñuel.
Soon Dali left for Paris, where he joined the surrealist movement, giving it a new breath and meaning with his work. Returning to Catalonia 12 years later, Dali invited the French poet Paul Eluard and his Russian wife Elena Ivanovna Dyakonova to Cadaqués. This meeting was decisive in the fate of the artist...
Elena became the lover, muse and life partner of the artist, receiving from him the nickname Gala. The couple never had children.
There is evidence that the artist was ashamed of his
sexuality and was more of a voyeur than a participant
sexual games. In general, this topic is dark ...
Salvador Dali and Gala
After the death of Gala in 1982, Dali was broken both as a person and as an artist. He died seven years later on January 23, 1989, at the age of 85 from heart failure, and was buried at the Dalí Theater Museum in Figueres, as he willed.
He wanted his whole life and its manifestations to be available to the people, he wanted to be buried under a nameless slab on which people could walk. Now everyone can come to the crypt of the great surrealist.
The museum management tried to delay the exhumation.
Mayor Martha Felip said that "even if you want to enforce the judgment, doing it on July 20 is almost impossible" and that it is "not such an easy thing to do.
She recalled that the artist rests in a crypt under a stone slab that weighs a ton. In addition, the building is listed as a National Cultural Interest. Thus, it is necessary to request permission to carry out work.
Initially, it was assumed that the exhumation process would begin at 9 am (10.00 Moscow time) on Thursday, but the court agreed to postpone the start of work until the evening, after the museum was closed to the public. That is, work will begin at 20.00 pm local time (21.00 Moscow time) and should be completed by Friday morning. The process will involve a group of forensic medical examination and representatives of the court.
Music: Viktor Zinchuk "Lonely in the Night"
Soon the high-profile story that has been troubling Spain for several years will be put to an end - does the great surrealist Salvador Dali have an heir, or rather an heiress. In Figueres, in the house-museum of the eccentric artist, his remains were exhumed in order to take DNA samples - as the court ruled.
For many years it was believed that Dali had no descendants, but now a woman was found who assures that she is his illegitimate daughter. In anticipation of the results, the local press calculated what kind of inheritance this lady could count on if everything was confirmed.
The forensic procedure takes place in an absolutely surreal spirit. The remains of Salvador Dali are exhumed with a huge press crowd. But not a single frame will be taken inside the museum. Forbidden. Even the glass dome was covered with a cloth to prevent the body from being filmed by drones. Journalists and tourists are talking: “I wonder how his famous mustache is?”. Full sur.
“Let's not discuss such details. As mayor of the city, I was present at the procedure. I can only say that the remains of Salvador Dali are in a satisfactory condition,” said Marta Felip, Mayor of Figueres.
The great artist seemed to have foreseen: the eternal sleep caused by the flight of a bumblebee around a pomegranate will, sooner or later, be disturbed. He bequeathed not to betray his body to the earth. Dali was buried in the building of a personal theater-museum under a multi-ton steel plate. She was moved tonight for Pilar Abel Martinez.
“I have a chance to find out the main thing about myself, in fact, to understand who I am. It is wonderful! This is the best thing that could happen to me and my mother. There are no words!" she says.
Pilar Abel Martinez insists she is the illegitimate daughter of Salvador Dali. The mother worked as a servant in the house where the artist lived, and it started spinning: courts, three DNA examinations, according to particles taken from the artist's death mask. Fiasco... Some resemblance, of course, can be found. But Dali never mentioned a possible daughter. Pilar Abel Martinez herself is better known as a soothsayer. Love spell, lapel, vow of celibacy. Either a swindler, or all in her father - extravagant.
“I want everyone to know I feel calm and positive. Yes, I have peace of mind. For eleven years I have been looking for the truth,” says Pilar Abel Martinez.
The man who embalmed the body of Salvador Dali was present at the exhumation today. He fears that the formalin he used 28 years ago could damage DNA.
“Apparently, the experts will work with the material of the artist's large bones and teeth. All this will be taken for research in Madrid, to the Institute of Toxicology,” explains Narsis Bardalet.
The result of the DNA test will be announced court session September 18th. If it is confirmed that Salvador Dali was indeed the father of Pilar Abel Martinez, the woman will be able to claim a quarter of the artist's inheritance - 300 million euros.
The exhumation of the body of the surrealist artist Salvador Dali, 28 years old peacefully resting under a huge slab in the room of the Theater-Museum in the Spanish Figueres (Catalonia), took place on Thursday evening, DNA samples were sent for examination, museum director Montse Aguer told RIA Novosti.
It was necessary to lift a huge plate weighing 1.5 tons, get a coffin, exhume Dali's body and take DNA because of a court decision made at the end of June by a court in Madrid. The judge upheld the claim of the "soothsayer" Pilar Abel Martinez, who claims that Dali is her blood father. Attempts to challenge or at least delay the judgment made by the Figueres city hall and the museum management were unsuccessful.
"Everything went according to plan. The samples taken were sent for examination," the director of the museum told a RIA Novosti correspondent.
Dozens of journalists gathered near the building of the theater-museum, designed by Dali. The entrance was guarded by several employees of the Catalan police Mossos d "Esquadra. At about 1 a.m. local time, the forensic experts left the building, loaded a suitcase with DNA samples taken from bones and teeth, equipment into the car and left. The analysis will be carried out by specialists from the Madrid Institute of Toxicology.
A few tourists could be seen next to the journalists, who were watching what was happening with surprise. "It all looks strange. Some kind of surrealism. Dali is probably laughing," says David, who came to Figueres from Pamplona for a few days to see the city. In honor of such an event, David decided to twist his mustache up to look like Dali. Under bell ringing, resounding over the night Figueres, the whole action actually looked like some kind of draw.
The exhumation was carried out with a minimum number of people - only representatives of the court, the museum and forensic experts were present. Everyone was taken away at the entrance Cell phones- so that no one takes pictures. Fearing that they would want to film what was happening from above with a drone, the glass dome was covered.
As it turned out, the coffin was preserved in a very good condition, it was opened exactly at 22.20 local time. Forensic experts said the process took much less time than originally thought. City Hall, museum management and representatives Supreme Court The Catalonia thought they would have to spend the whole night in the building.
As the mayor of the city of Figueres, Marta Felip, told reporters, the body was in good condition. The mayor admitted that she was impressed by what was happening. "It's impressive because it's a journey into the past and you're reliving moments from the past," she told reporters. The mayor declined to answer the question of the state of Dali's famous mustache.
Tourist Ana believes that a woman who calls herself Dali's daughter and made a fuss all over the world is "crazy". "They set up a theater for the whole world," she laughs.
The first scandal around this woman broke out a few years ago in connection with a lawsuit she filed in 2005 against journalist and writer Javier Sercas, the author of one of the most famous books contemporary Spanish Literature"Soldiers of Salamis". She believes that she became the prototype of the heroine of the book - Conchi, and that the writer has damaged her honor and dignity, because the heroine is "ignorant, stupid, hypocritical, superficial." Pilar demanded compensation in the amount of 700 thousand euros. In 2009, the court finally refused to satisfy this claim, since Javier Sercas was not even familiar with the "seer".
Abel claims that her mother, Antonia Martinez de Haro, had a connection with the artist in the mid-1950s while working at his friends' house in Cadaqués. At that time, Dali lived there with his wife and muse Gala. Having become pregnant at the age of 25, Antonia moved to Castellón de Empurias, married a 29-year-old man named Juan. He became the official father of Abel.
According to the soothsayer, Dali knew about the birth of his daughter. Once, as she said, Dali saw Antonio when she was walking down the street with a baby carriage, and asked: "Is this my daughter Pilar?" For the first time she heard that she was the illegitimate daughter of the artist, from her grandmother, the mother of the official father. “I know that you are not my son’s daughter, you are from a great artist, but I still love you,” the grandmother said, adding that she is “as strange as her father (meaning Dali),” the fortuneteller claims.
Abel has already passed her DNA tests. It remains to get tests of her 87-year-old mother, who suffers from Alzheimer's, and wait for the expertise of Madrid specialists.
The final decision whether Abel can officially consider Dali his father will be made by the court. The date has already been set - September 18th. The soothsayer promised: if the decision is in her favor, then she will take the name Dali.
The issue of inheritance in this case will be the subject of a separate judicial trial. By law, she would be able to claim a quarter of the entire legacy of the surrealist, including copyrights and paintings. In 1989, Dali's legacy was estimated at $136 million, since then the amount has increased several times. By some estimates, Abel, who is in such a difficult financial position that she doesn't even have the money to pay off her lawyer can claim $300 million. The Spanish state owns most of Dali's inheritance, who, according to current official data, had no children. These are hundreds of paintings, as well as the property of the artist in Catalonia.
If the court decision is not in favor of the plaintiff, she will have to pay for all the work that was carried out in the museum. But apparently the soothsayer is determined and does not intend to give up until the end. "I'm not considering another scenario," she said on the eve of the exhumation. Her lawyer, Enrique Blankes, said they "will continue to try if the tests are not done with due guarantee."
