Court Orders Woman to Pay for the Exhumation of Dalí's Body

Three years ago, the fortune teller Pilar Abel succeeded in obtaining a DNA test to prove her relationship with the surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, whom she had been claiming as her father for years. Following the exhumation of the artist's embalmed body, a delicate procedure that included the removal of a tombstone weighing almost a ton, DNA analysis confirmed that Abel was in no way related with the painter.

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The fortune-teller and clairvoyant from Girona always thought her birth was the result of an affair between her mother and Dalí in 1955. Dalí, who died in 1989, rested in a crypt located under a museum in Figueres, in Catalonia. Hair, nails and bone samples were taken from his body.

On Monday, the Madrid court demanded that the clairvoyant pay the costs of justice and exhumation. In a press release, the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, which controls the artist's estate, said that the Spanish courts had rejected Abel's appeal calling into question the chain of possession of Dalí’s remains, and that the court had ordered her to pay the fees.

“The Dalí Foundation wishes to express its satisfaction now that the memory of Salvador Dalí has ​​been honored,” said the organization. “The court decision puts an end to this sad episode, which led to the exhumation of the remains of Salvador Dalí in July 2017.”

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The court said there was “absolutely nothing to support” the psychic's latest allegations.

Shortly after the exhumation, Abel said her financial situation was dire. Today, unsurprisingly, nothing has changed and she remains insolvent.

“His moustache is still intact, [like the hands on the clock] at 10.10 a.m., just as he liked it,” reassured Narcis Bardalet, the embalmer who prepared Dalí's body after his death and participated in exhumation.

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