Congratulations, Salvador Dali; you’re off the hook on a paternity claim. And all it required was for your body to be exhumed.
The surrealist painter’s foundation said Wednesday that tests have concluded that Dali isn’t the father of Maria Pilar Abel Martinez.
“The Court of First Instance No. 11 in Madrid has given notice to the lawyers of the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí (the law firm Roca Junyent) of the report issued by the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences in which, after analyzing the biological samples of Pilar Abel Martínez and those obtained in the exhumation of the remains of Salvador Dalí, it concludes that the results obtained ‘permits the exclusion of Salvador Dalí as the biological father of María Pilar Abel Martínez,’” the foundation said via its website.
“This conclusion comes as no surprise to the Foundation, since at no time has there been any evidence of the veracity of an alleged paternity,” the foundation added. “The unusual and unjustified court decision to practice the exhumation is confirmed as totally inadequate and disproportionate, showing its utter inadmissibility and the uselessness of the costs and damages caused of all kind, in respect of which the Foundation reiterates its express right of actions.”
The foundation further noted that it’s pleased that the “absurd and artificial controversy” has been done away with.
The remains of Dali, who died in 1984 at age 84, were exhumed in June, after tarot-card reader Pilar Abel claimed that the artist had an affair with her mother one year before her birth and filed a lawsuit for a partial claim to the artist’s estate.