Salvador Dali's body to be exhumed for a paternity test

Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali's body will be exhumed as a result of a Madrid court order to get DNA samples for a paternity suit brought on by a woman who claims to be his daughter.

The woman, Maria Pilar Abel Martinez, who was born in 1956 said her mother, a maid, had a clandestine affair with the painter in 1955, reported The Guardian.

"The DNA study of the painter's corpse is necessary due to the lack of other biological or personal remains with which to perform the comparative study," the Madrid court said.

There is no date set for the exhumation, but it could happen in July, according to Martinez's lawyer, reported BBC.

Dali died in Spain in 1989 at the age of 85. He was buried in his hometown of Figueres, Spain at the Dali Theatre and Museum. He had no known children while he was alive.

Martinez's mother Antonia was a maid who had worked for a family in Cadaques, Spain, where Dali had a home. The woman said her mother often told her Dali was her father.

Martinez first publicly made the claim that Dali was her father in 2015. She went under two paternity tests in 2007 but did not receive the results.

Dali was married to Gala Dali at the time of the alleged affair.