Salvador Dali paternity test

Photo: The Canadian Press

Visitors at the tomb of Salvador Dali in Figueres, Spain.

Officials in Spain say that hair, nails and two long bones have been removed from Salvador Dali's embalmed remains to find genetic samples for a paternity test — a move that opens the possibility for a woman who says she is the surrealist artist's daughter to claim part of the Dali estate.

Pilar Abel, a 61-year-old tarot card reader, claims her mother had an affair with Dali in the northeastern Spanish town of Figueres, where the artist was born and later returned with his Russian wife Gala. Dali was buried in the Dali Museum Theater of Figueres when he died at 84 years old in 1989.

The exhumation followed two decades of court battles by Abel. In June, a Madrid judge finally ruled that a DNA test should be performed to find out whether her allegations were true.

Forensic experts opened the artist's coffin Thursday night in a sensitive operation that involved using pulleys to lift a 1.5-ton stone slab.

Lluis Penuelas Reixach, the secretary general of the Gala Dali Foundation, said Dali's remains are well conserved, mummified after the embalming process applied 27 years ago. He was speaking to reporters Friday during a press conference in Figueres.

If proved right, she could claim one fourth of the painter's estate which is now in the hands of a public foundation, according to her lawyer Enrique Blanquez. There are no current estimates of the value of that fortune.