Exhumation in Spain. In Spain, the remains of Salvador Dali are being exhumed due to a paternity case.

Salvador Dali's remains were exhumed in July this year as Spanish authorities tried to determine whether the great artist fathered a child as a result of an affair. The secretive procedure obtained samples of hair, fingernails, teeth and several bones from the artist's embalmed body, and DNA obtained from the samples could offer a definitive answer that could help resolve a long-running, high-profile paternity trial.

Dali's mustache has retained its shape!

On this moment answer to main question is inaccurate, but forensic experts were able to uncover one very interesting detail, when they briefly removed Dalí's body from his tomb located in the Dalí Theater-Museum in Figueres: his legendary mustache remained in perfect shape. “His mustache maintained that classic 10 o’clock 10 minute position,” said Lewis Peñulas, general secretary Dali Foundation. “Discovering this was a very exciting moment.” The forensic doctor who embalmed the great artist's body in 1989 was also present during the procedure, which took place in July 2017 and took only a few hours. “It was a real miracle! - said Narcis Bardalet. “Salvador Dali is eternal.”

DNA paternity test

It may also turn out that he is the father. At least that's what 61-year-old Pilar Abel, who specializes in reading Tarot cards, says. She claims that the great artist had an affair with her mother in 1955, that is, one year before her birth. “The first time I saw him, I was a little girl,” she told reporters three years ago when she filed a lawsuit to claim part of the artist’s estate. “I was on a walk with my great-grandmother and she showed it to me.” At this time Dali was married, although, as is typical for a man like him, this marriage was far from the most ordinary. “At the time he was married to his muse Gala, who lived in the castle, which he could only visit with written permission,” explained journalist Lauren Fryer. - They didn't have children. Since Dalí had no heir, his entire fortune, amounting to hundreds of millions, was left to the Spanish state in 1989 when he died.”

Did Dali have a child?

In 2007, Abel made her claim public and has been seeking evidence ever since, saying she wanted to honor her mother in a similar way. Enrique Blanques, Abel's lawyer, also reports that if such evidence is found, Abel will be able to claim a quarter of Dali's estate, which he left after his death. Peñulas and the Dali Foundation, which manages the artist's estate, did not want the exhumation to take place, so attempts were made to fight the exhumation order issued by a Madrid judge in June 2017. Representatives of the Foundation also promised that they would continue to defend their position in court. “The Foundation considers that the exhumation of Salvador Dalí's body was completely inappropriate,” said a statement issued by the Foundation after the exhumation was completed and Dalí's body was returned to its place.

Position of representatives of the Dali Foundation

“Before agreeing to such an invasive act as the exhumation of the body of Salvador Dalí, the applicant Pilar Abel Martinez should have taken a DNA test herself to compare her DNA with the DNA of her legal father (deceased) or her brother, in order to obtain all the necessary evidence that she is not their daughter or sister, respectively,” representatives of the foundation believe. However, Abel herself is now confident that the forensic experts currently working on this case will prove her right. After all, she thinks she looks exactly like Salvador Dali. “The only thing I don’t have is a mustache,” she said. It remains to wait quite a bit, and the world will find out whether Dali had children.

The exhumation of the body of surrealist artist Salvador Dali, who rested peacefully for 28 years under a huge slab in the room of the Theater-Museum in Figueres, Spain (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 slab weighing 1.5 tons, remove the coffin, exhume Dali’s body and take DNA due to a court decision made at the end of June by a Madrid court. The judge granted the claim of the “soothsayer” Pilar Abel Martinez, who claims that Dali is her blood father. Attempts to challenge or at least delay the court decision made by the mayor's office of Figueres and the management of the museum 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, created according to Dali’s design. The entrance was guarded by several members of the Catalan police Mossos d'Esquadra. At about one o'clock in the morning local time, 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.

Next to the journalists, a few tourists could be seen watching what was happening in 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 this event, David decided to curl his mustache up to resemble Dali. Under bell ringing, resounding over the night Figueres, the whole action actually looked like some kind of practical joke.

The exhumation was carried out with a minimum number of people - only representatives of the court, 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 from a drone, the glass dome was covered.

As it turned out, the coffin was preserved in very good condition. good condition, it opened exactly at 22.20 local time. Forensic experts reported that the process took much less time than originally expected. The mayor's office, the museum's management and representatives of the High Court of Catalonia thought that 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 going back in time and you're reliving moments from the past," she told reporters. The mayor refused to answer the question about the condition of the famous mustache Dali.

Tourist Ana believes that the woman who calls herself Dali’s daughter and has created a stir all over the world is “crazy.” “They created a theater for the whole world,” she laughs.

The first scandal surrounding this woman broke out several years ago in connection with the lawsuit that she filed in 2005 against journalist and writer Javier Cercas, author of one of the most famous books of modern times. spanish literature"Soldiers of Salamis" She believes that she became the prototype of the book’s heroine, Conchi, and that the writer damaged her honor and dignity, since 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 Cercas did not even know the “seer.”

Abel claims that her mother Antonia Martínez de Haro had an affair with the artist in the mid-1950s while working at his friends' house in Cadaqués. At this time, Dali lived there with his wife and muse Gala. Having become pregnant at 25, Antonia moved to Castellon de Empurias and 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. One day, she said, Dali saw António walking down the street with a baby stroller and asked: “Is this my daughter Pilar?” She first heard that she was the illegitimate daughter of an artist from her grandmother, the mother of her 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 (referring to Dali),” the fortune teller claims.

Abel has already passed her DNA tests. All that remains is to get tests on her 87-year-old mother, who suffers from Alzheimer's, and wait for the examination of Madrid specialists.

The final decision on whether Abel can officially consider Dali his father will be made by the court. The date has already been set - September 18. The soothsayer promised: if the decision is in her favor, she will take the name Dali.

The issue of inheritance in this case will become the subject of a separate trial. By law, she could claim a quarter of the surrealist’s entire legacy, including copyrights and paintings. In 1989, Dali's legacy was estimated at $136 million, since then the amount has increased several times. According to some estimates, Abel, who is in such a difficult financial situation that she does not even have the money to pay a lawyer, could claim $300 million. Owned by the Spanish State most of the inheritance of Dali, 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 completely. "I'm not considering any other scenario," she said on the eve of the exhumation. Her lawyer, Enrique Blanques, said they would "continue to try if the tests are not carried out with due guarantee."

Illustration copyright AFP/EPA Image caption Ms Martinez was born in 1956 and claims that her father is Salvador Dalí

On Friday night, the body of artist Salvador Dali was exhumed in order to establish paternity, which is claimed by a woman calling herself his daughter.

The operation, during which samples of the artist's teeth, bones and nails were taken, lasted four hours. Experts will now compare Dali's DNA samples with those of his self-proclaimed daughter.

To get to the artist’s body, it was necessary to lift the one and a half ton slab that covers his grave.

The tomb of the surrealist artist, who died in 1989 at the age of 85, is in a museum dedicated to his life and work in Figueres in Catalonia.

The process is progressing despite the objections of local authorities and the Salvador Dali Foundation, which consider the grounds for exhumation insufficient.

Maria Pilar Abel Martinez, a tarot card reader, was born in 1956. She claims that her mother Antonia had an affair with Dali a year before she was born. Antonia worked for a family who were then spending time in Cadaques, not far from the artist’s home.

Last month, a judge in Madrid ordered the exhumation to resolve the matter. The Salvador Dali Foundation, which manages the estate of the artist, who is believed to have had no children, opposed the exhumation.

Ms. Martinez claims that her mother and paternal grandmother told her that her father was Dali. She cited the words of her grandmother in a conversation with journalists from the newspaper El Mundo: “I love you very much, but I know that you are not the daughter of my son. Moreover, I know who your father is - Salvador Dali.”

Once, according to Ms. Martinez, she asked her mother: “Am I really the daughter of Salvador Dali? After all, look how ugly he was.” Her mother then replied: “Yes, but he had his own charm. And yes, he is your father.”

Ms. Martinez's actions run counter to the interests of the state, to which Dali bequeathed his property. If paternity is confirmed, she will be able to claim his surname and part of the inheritance.

The very story about Dali’s affair surprised many, not so much because Dali got married in 1955, but because of his complex sexual preferences. For many, this is what explains the impossibility of the idea that he could get a woman pregnant.

According to Dali biographer Ian Gibson, the idea that the artist ever had physical intimacy with a woman is “absolutely impossible,” despite 50 years of marriage to Elena Ivanovna Dyakonova, his Russian wife, better known as Gala.

“Dali always boasted that he was impotent and that you had to be impotent to become a great artist,” says the biographer.

Salvador Dali: the life of a surrealist

• Born May 11, 1904 in Figueres in Catalonia
• During his life he painted more than 1,500 paintings
• Married Elena Ivanovna Dyakonova (Gala) in 1934; the couple had no children
• The couple was in open relationship and often held orgies in her house. Dali, however, preferred observation to participation.
• Died January 23, 1989 in Figueres

Dalí's close friendship with gay poet Federico García Lorca fueled rumors that Dalí was gay, but Ian Gibson is confident they never crossed the friendship line.

Carlos Lozano, who was in Dali's circle of close people for some time, told a biographer that "Dali, in principle, could not have sex with anyone sexual relations, even with Gala... He hated touching, and when he touched someone, it felt like an eagle was clinging to you with its claws.”

"The Great Voyeur"

Dalí's strange sexual proclivities appear to have been woven into his work, and in 1956 - the year Ms. Martinez was born - he wrote in his diary: "I feel a state of constant intellectual excitement."

There are a number of paintings that contributed to Dali's particular reputation for his bizarre erotic tastes. Thus, in the painting “The Great Masturbator” (1929), from a huge human profile, under whose nose a large winged insect sits, appears woman's face and presses against the male groin area.

The artist and writer Luis Longueras, who knew Dalí from the early 1960s until his death, traces the reasons for the artist's peculiar attitude towards sex back in his childhood. According to him, when Dali was a teenager, his father caused him psychological trauma by constantly showing pictures of male penises disfigured by syphilis.

However, Longueras notes that the artist's preference for observing physical intimacy rather than participating in it himself was completely understandable for a man of Dali's talent.

• The world celebrates Dali's 100th birthday

"He was an artist and therefore a voyeur - each of us artists needs to be voyeurs. Otherwise, how can we work with human body?" explains Longueras.

However, Dali's interests were not limited to erotica and human forms- they also included features human memory, religion and even the world of science. Thus, the 1963 painting “G” was painted in honor of Francis Crick and James Watson, the scientists who discovered the structure of DNA.

“I think Dali would have loved the fact that he was exhumed, because it’s an absolutely surreal event,” Gibson said. “He would have been very intrigued by the whole process, I’m sure of that.”