Spanish woman claims to be Salvador Dalí's daughter

Pilar Abel, 58, claims her mother and the artist met in the 1950s when her mother was working for a family that would often spend summers in Cadaqués, close to where Dalí had a home. The pair “had a friendship that developed into clandestine love”, said Abel, in documents presented to a Madrid court. Abel was born in 1956.

At the time, Dalí would have been married to Gala, born Elena Ivanovna Diakonova. They married in 1934 and had no children.

Driven by her mother’s repeated comments that she was the daughter of Dalí, Abel took a DNA test in Madrid in 2007, using hair and skin remains that she had obtained from a death mask of the painter. The results were inconclusive.

Abel said she never received the results of the test. On Thursday, she took her battle to a Madrid court, asking for help in obtaining the results or, if necessary, backing to have another DNA test carried out. If there is insufficient genetic material for the test, the court documents raise the possibility of exhuming Dalí’s remains.

In 2008, Descharnes’ son Nicolas refuted Abel’s paternity claim, saying the doctor who had carried out the paternity tests in Paris had verbally communicated to Abel that the tests were negative.

"There is no relationship between this woman and Salvador Dalí," he told Spanish agency Efe at the time.