The Spanish flu achieved the exhumation of Salvador Dali. She claims that he is her father. The exhumation of Salvador Dali's body showed that the famous mustache retained its shape

During the exhumation of Salvador Dali, undertaken the day before by decision of a Madrid court, it turned out that his body was exceptionally well preserved. The experts were especially impressed by the imperishable mustache of the famous surrealist.

Narcis Bardalet, who embalmed the artist's body, told La Vanguardia that the artist's mustache, of which he was so proud, had perfectly preserved its shape. "It's a miracle," he said.

The embalmer involved in the exhumation said the mummy had hardened like wood, so forensic experts had to struggle to use a scalpel.

Experts seized several of Dali's hairs, nail clippings and two bone samples to conduct a DNA paternity test at the request of Spanish soothsayer Pilar Abel Martinez, who has been suing for the right to be named for 10 years illegitimate daughter artist.

Martinez’s actions are contrary to the interests of the state, the BBC Russian Service recalls, since Dali bequeathed his property to Spain. If paternity is confirmed, she will be able to claim not only the surname, but also part of the inheritance.

Researchers of the artist’s life do not rate the chances of such an outcome highly, because the great surrealist had complex sexual preferences, and the very idea of ​​physical intimacy with a woman was almost impossible for him, despite his 50-year marriage to Gala - Elena Ivanovna Dyakonova.

“Dali always boasted that he was impotent and that you had to be impotent to become a great artist,” says his biographer Ian Gibson, insisting that his friendship with the famous poet García Lorca did not turn into an intimate relationship.

Dali wore an impressive mustache in imitation of Velazquez, who, unlike him, was a universally respected and recognized artist in official circles. Every morning, Salvador Dali waxed his mustache and pointed the tips upward. If upcoming events required special pathos, Dali applied extra hair, a supply of which his hairdresser kept. This mustache served the great shocker as a wonderful advertisement.

At the age of 50, Dali, together with photographer Philippe Halsman, published the scandalous photo album “Dali’s Mustache,” which included many photographs of mustaches that reached the artist’s eyebrows, depicted a dollar sign, served as the basis for hanging medallions with portraits of Stalin and Lenin, and even served as clock hands.

Dali called his mustache "antennas for the perception of art" and proclaimed: "My mustache is joyful and full of optimism. It is akin to Velazquez's mustache and is the complete opposite of Nietzsche's mustache."

In 1982, Salvador Dali, suffering from Parkinson's disease, fell into a deep depression due to the death of his wife Gala. Two years later, paralyzed, he found himself at the center of a castle fire in Pubol. Until this moment, he hoped to be buried next to Gala and prepared a place for himself in the crypt, but after the fire he moved to the theater-museum in the city of Figueres. In 1989, he died of heart failure at the age of 85 and was buried on the museum grounds. According to his last will, the grave was arranged so that people could walk on it.

A court in Spain has ordered the exhumation of the remains of Salvador Dali. This is necessary to continue hearings on the claim of a woman who claims to be the only daughter of the world famous surrealist. If this is indeed the case, then she will be entitled to a share of the vast wealth and legacy of one of the most famous and prolific artists of the 20th century.

The court in Madrid said Dalí's exhumation was necessary "to obtain samples of his remains to determine whether he is the biological father of a woman from Girona (in northeastern Spain) who has filed a claim to be recognized as the artist's daughter."

“The DNA study 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 Dalí Foundation, which manages the artist's estate, said it would file an appeal "in the coming days" but did not provide details.

Pilar Abel (left) with her 86-year-old mother Antonia Martinez de Jaro in 2015. Photo: The New York Times

61-year-old clairvoyant Pilar Abel claims her mother had an affair with Dali while she was working as a nanny for a family holidaying in Port Ligat, a tiny fishing village on the coast near Cadaques. 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 Castellon de Empurias, got married and after some time had a daughter.

According to Pilar, she first heard that she was Dali’s illegitimate daughter from her grandmother, the mother of her official father.

“My grandmother 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 that his name was Dali,” Abel said in an interview with the Catalan television channel TV3 in 2015. She added that her mother later admitted the truth of these words.

In 2015, Pilar Abel filed her 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 surname and copyright.

On the left is Maria Pilar Abel Martinez, on the right is Salvador Dali.

The fortune teller loves to imitate the gestures and mannerisms of her supposed father and repeats all the time: “The only thing I’m missing is a mustache.” In 2007 and 2008, she conducted several DNA tests using hair and skin remaining on Dali'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 gave evidence in the presence of a notary." The lawyer added that there was 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 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 developed his first artistic ideas together with the poet Federico García Lorca and director Luis Buñuel.

Soon Dali left for Paris, where he joined the surrealist movement, giving it new breath and meaning with his works. Returning to Catalonia 12 years later, Dali invited the French poet Paul Eluard and his Russian wife Elena Ivanovna Dyakonova to Cadaques. This meeting became decisive in the artist’s fate...

Elena then became the artist’s lover, muse and life partner, receiving the nickname Gala from him. The couple never had children.

There is evidence that the artist was embarrassed by 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 Gala's death 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 in the Dalí Theater and Museum in Figueres, as he had wished.

He wanted his whole life and its manifestations to be accessible to the people, he wanted to be buried under a nameless slab on which people could walk. Now anyone can come to the crypt of the great surrealist.

Museum management tried to delay the exhumation. The mayor of the city, Marta Felip, said that “even with all the desire to execute the court decision, it is almost impossible to do this on July 20,” and that it is “not such a simple thing.

She recalled that the artist rests in a crypt under a stone slab that weighs a ton. In addition, the building is a heritage building of National Cultural Interest. Therefore, it is necessary to request permission to carry out the work.

The exhumation process was initially expected to begin at 9 a.m. (10 a.m. Moscow time) 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 forensic team and court representatives.

Watch the ren.tv video in which the woman who declared herself the daughter of Salvador Dali explained why she sought exhumation

I agree with the announcer of the report that in famous museum Salvador Dali's most scandalous performance will take place in Catalonia... Experts and art critics are sure that Martinez is fighting for the truth, and is trying to win Dali's inheritance.

Music: Victor Zinchuk “Lonely in the Night”

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 at the Dalí Theater and Museum in Figueres: his iconic 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.

FIGUERES (Spain), July 21— RIA Novosti, Elena Shesternina. The exhumation of Salvador Dali's body took place on Thursday evening at the Theater-Museum of the surrealist artist in Figueres, Spain (Catalonia), DNA samples were sent for examination, museum director Montse Aguer told RIA Novosti.

A Madrid court ordered exhumation to take DNA. At the end of June, 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. To get the coffin with the body of the artist who died 28 years ago, specialists had to lift the one and a half ton slab under which he rested.

“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 Catalan police officers. At about 1 a.m. local time, forensic experts left the building, loaded a suitcase with DNA samples taken from bones and teeth, and 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. With the bells ringing over the night Figueres, the whole action actually looked like some kind of prank.

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; it was 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.

The first scandal surrounding this woman broke out several years ago in connection with the lawsuit that she filed in 2005 against the journalist and writer Javier Cercas, the author of one of the most famous books modern Spanish literature "Soldiers of Salamis". She believes that she became the prototype for the heroine of Conchi's book 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 judicial 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."