Spanish officials exhuming the body of Salvador Dali found the iconic mustache still intact nearly 30 years after the artist’s death.
Investigators who dug up Dali’s body to take DNA samples for a paternity test said the body was so well preserved that the mustache was still in “its classic shape of ten past ten,” the Associated Press reports.
Only five people — a judge, three coroners and their assistant — were allowed to be present when the casket was opened to obtain the sample.
Dali was buried at the museum bearing his name in Figueres, Spain, after his death in 1989. Pilar Abel Martinez, a 61-year-old fortune teller, claims her mother had an affair with Dali and filed a paternity suit more than a decade ago.
A Madrid judge ordered Dali’s remains exhumed in June to complete the test, but the Dali foundation maintains that the paternity suit is bogus.
“There is no evidence that claimant Pilar Abel Martinez’s claim has any legal basis, as the only grounds provided constitute a notarial statement from a woman who claims to be a friend of the mother, stating that the latter told her that her daughter’s father was Salvador Dali,” the Foundation said.
If the paternity test comes out as a match, Abel Martinez could be heiress to Dali’s sizable fortune, which currently is held by the Dali Foundation, a public trust.
All cell phones were put in a deposit before the opening of Dali’s casket, and the museum installed a marquee to block any drones from taking images through the museum’s glass dome.
Follow Thomas Phippen on Twitter
Send tips to thomas@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.