Painter Salvador Dalí was exhumed this week to retrieve DNA to settle a paternity case, CBS News reports. Dalí died in 1989 at the age of 84 and was buried in the Dalí Museum Theater in Figueres, Spain, the Associated Press adds.
Sixty-one-year-old Pilar Abel has claimed that Dalí is her father. "I asked my mother if Salvador Dalí was my father, because he was a little bit ugly," Abel said during a news conference, according to CBS News. "My mother responded, 'yes, he was your father.'"
Abel first claimed about a decade ago that her mother, who was a nanny in the Figueres area, had an affair with Dalí, CBS News adds. A judge in Madrid ruled in June that a genetic test should be conducted, the AP says.
If found to be Dalí's daughter, Abel could inherit part of his estate, CBS News notes.
Her claim surprises Dalí biographer Ian Gibson, who says that Dalí always said he was impotent, the BBC reports. "Dalí always boasted: 'I'm impotent, you've got to be impotent to be a great painter,'" Gibson says.
Forensic experts have now exhumed Dalí's body and collected teeth, bones, and nails samples for analysis, the BBC adds. The results of the paternity test aren't expected until September.