Salvador Dalí is not the daddy

Like a surreal episode of the Jeremy Kyle Show, the DNA results are in and Salvador Dalí is not the father of Pilar Abel. The Spanish Surrealist’s body was exhumed this summer following a protracted legal case brought about by Abel, who claimed to be the artist’s daughter. Abel said her mother had an affair with Dalí in 1955 in Port-Lligat, a small coastal village in northern Catalonia where the artist lived and worked. She was born the following year in 1956. At the time, Dalí was married to Gala, with whom he never had any children. The results of the DNA test were announced today (6 September) by the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, who said in a statement: “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.” Of course, Dalí’s exhumation would not be complete without a twist, as reported by The Art Newspaper in July. Despite lying buried for almost three decades, the artist’s famous moustache was “still intact [set at] ten past ten, just as he liked it”, according to the embalmer who assisted with the exhumation.