Updated June 27, 2017 07:52:23

Photo: Upon his death at age 84, Dali bestowed his estate to the Spanish state. (Wikimedia: Allan Warren)

A Spanish judge has ordered the remains of artist Salvador Dali to be exhumed to settle a paternity suit, despite opposition from the state-run foundation that manages the artist's estate.

Dali, considered one of the fathers of surrealist art, died in 1989 and is buried in his museum in the north-eastern town of Figueres.

Pilar Abel, a tarot-card reader from the nearby city of Girona who was born in 1956, says she is the offspring of an affair between Dali and her mother, Antonia.

At the time of the alleged affair, Dali was married to his muse, Gala, who died seven years before the painter.

Gala had a daughter from an earlier marriage but the couple had no children of their own.

Upon his death at age 84, Dali bestowed his estate to the Spanish state.

A Madrid court statement said that tests with DNA from Dali's embalmed body were necessary because there were no other existing biological remains with which to make a genetic comparison.

"What she wants is to have a result of the tests with full guarantee in order to finish with this as soon as possible," Ms Abel's lawyer Enrique Blanquez said.

If there is a match, Ms Abel could use Dali as her surname and pursue further legal action to claim her rights over the artist's work and property, which according to regional laws could amount to 25 per cent of all of the estate.

The Gala Dali Foundation will appeal the decision, foundation spokeswoman Imma Parada said in an e-mailed statement.

But according to Mr Blanquez, the appeal could not immediately stop the exhuming of Dali's remains.

The eccentric artist, recognisable by his long, waxed moustache, was known for outrageous behaviour such as giving lectures in an old-fashioned deep-sea diving suit and driving from Spain to Paris in a white Rolls Royce filled with cauliflowers.

AP/Reuters

Topics: art-and-design, contemporary-art, arts-and-entertainment, performance-art, family-law, laws, spain

First posted June 27, 2017 06:38:42