Spanish Psychic Pilar Abel Files Suit Claiming to Be the Daughter of Salvador Dalí

What's in the cards for Pilar Abel?

Pilar Abel, a 58-year-old astrologist and tarot reader from Gerona, Spain, has filed a paternity suit in a Madrid court, claiming she is the daughter of the Spanish artist Salvador Dalí, El Mundo reports.

Abel has also asked the court to allow the exhumation of Dalí’s remains, so accurate DNA tests can be done. Dalí died in 1989 (see $200 Antique Shop Find Identified as Salvador Dalí’s First Surrealist Work).

According to Abel, her mother used to work as domestic help for a family who would often vacation in Cadaqués, where Dalí also had a house. The surrealist painter and the young maid became friendly, and their friendship soon developed into a full-fledged illicit affair in 1955, the result of which is allegedly Pilar Abel, who was born in 1956.

At the time, Dalí was married to his muse, Gala, with whom he never had any children.

This is not the first time that Abel tries to prove she is the daughter of one of the world’s most iconic artists. In 2007 and 2008, she had some DNA tests done using hair and skin remains from Dalí’s death mask, but the results proved inconclusive (see Forger’s Death Mask Bought by Rijksmuseum).

Undeterred, Abel has now taken her battle to court. But she has a set of strong opponents: the heirs of the painter, who are, specifically, the tax office and public administration of Spain, and the Dalí Foundation, according to the Guardian (see Salvador Dalí Gets His Face on a Banknote).

Interestingly, Abel’s lawyer is Francesc Bueno, who’s known in the Spanish media for having represented Albert Solá, a waiter who, in 2012, lodged—and lost—a paternity suit against Juan Carlos I of Spain, King of Spain at the time (he abdicated last year).

Abel seems anything but discouraged. She says her mother told her countless times that Dalí was her father, and she is fond of mimicking the gestures and mannerisms her alleged father was famous for, to highlight their physical similarities. “The only thing I am missing is the moustache,” she is fond of saying (see Buy a Copy of Salvador Dalí’s Erotic Cookbook).

Meanwhile, Nicolas Descharnes—son of the close friend and official biographer of Dalí, Robert Descharnes, to whom Abel had turned to for help in 2007—told the Spanish news agency EFE in 2008 that there was “no relationship between this woman and Salvador Dalí.”

For more coverage on paternity or maternity attributions related to great artists, see Was the Mona Lisa Leonardo’s Mother and a Chinese Slave?

 


Follow Artnet News on Facebook:


Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward.