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Exhumation of Dalí's remains finds his mustache still intact

 
Salvador Dal? died in 1989 leaving vast estate.
Salvador Dal? died in 1989 leaving vast estate.
Published July 22, 2017

FIGUERES, Spain — Forensic experts in Spain have removed hair, nails and two long bones from Salvador Dalí's embalmed remains to aid a court-ordered paternity test that may enable a woman who says she is the surrealist artist's daughter to claim part of Dalí's vast estate.

Officials said Friday that the artist's mummified remains were so well preserved that even his famous mustache had survived the passing of time and remained in "its classic shape of 10 past 10," referring to the hands on a clock.

Dalí, who once said "surrealism is me," is considered one of the founding fathers of the artistic movement. His works in paint, sculpture and cinema, among other disciplines, are shown in museums all over the world and sought by private collectors.

The artistic genius was buried in the Dalí Museum Theater in the northeastern Spanish town of Figueres, his birthplace, when he died at 84 in 1989.

The exhumation that began Thursday night followed a longstanding claim by Pilar Abel, a 61-year-old tarot card reader, who says her mother had an affair with Dalí in his hometown.

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 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-Salvador Dalí Foundation, said Dalí's remains — including his mustache — are well preserved and mummified after an embalming process was applied 27 years ago. He spoke Friday during a press conference in Figueres.

Dalí and his Russian wife Gala had no children of their own, although Gala had a daughter from an earlier marriage to French poet Paul Eluard.

The Salvador Dalí Museum is at 1 Dalí Blvd. in St. Petersburg. The collection includes over 2,100 works from every moment and in every medium of his artistic activity.