Ms Abel told the Telegraph that she was unconcerned by the criticisms, and dismissed the Dalí Foundation’s questioning of the court order as “pathetic”.

“I am very happy because at last it’s going to come to light, and this means a lot, it doesn’t matter to me what the Foundation says,” she said.

She insisted that she was not motivated by any potential inheritance but by a desire to know who she was. “It’s about my identity, and nothing else,” said Ms Abel, adding that the first thing she would do if the test came out positive was change her name. But then, she acknowledged, “probably I am going to ask for what is mine”.

The fortune teller, who for eight years hosted a tarot card reading show on local television, claimed that the visionary Dalí was the source of her powers. “I have had this gift since I was little, and where else can it come from? It can’t be from anyone else but him.”

Ms Abel said she believed the artist knew she was his child, relating an encounter told to her by her mother Antonia, who has given her blessing to the paternity suit. Her mother was pushing her in a pram when the pair ran into Dalí; he allegedly patted her head and remarked “So this is my daughter Pilar, eh?”. Ms Abel had crossed paths with him again as a teenager, and the pair had exchanged “looks that were more than looks”, she said.