Hair, nails removed from Dali’s remains for paternity test

Visitors stand near the tomb of Salvador Dali inside Dali Museum Theatre in Figueres, Spain, Friday, July 21, 2017. The samples of hair, nails and two long bones removed overnight from Salvador Dali’s embalmed remains could open a judicial battle for the artist’s estate if genetic tests prove that he had fathered a girl decades ago. Forensic experts removed on Thursday night the biological samples from a crypt in Figueres, in a sensitive operation that involved pulleys lifting a 1.5-ton stone slab. (AP Photo/Hernan Munoz)

FIGUERES, Spain (AP) — 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 could open a battle for the artist’s 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.

A judge in Madrid ruled in June that only a DNA test could settle the lawsuit.

Representatives of the foundation managing Dali’s estate said Friday the evidence backing Abel’s claims weren’t enough to justify the intrusive exhumation, and that it will continue a legal battle to nullify the paternity test.