Story highlights A Spanish woman claims that the surrealist artist is her father

The remains of Dali, who died 28 years ago, are to undergo DNA tests

(CNN) A Madrid court ordered Monday that the remains of Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali be exhumed. The move comes as a woman who claims to be his daughter filed a paternity claim.

The woman, born in 1956, claims she is Dali's child as a result of an extramarital tryst with her mother, who worked as a maid.

According to a statement from the Madrid Supreme Court, the objective of the exhumation is to "to get samples of his remains to determine whether he is the biological father of a woman from Girona (in northeastern Spain) who filed a claim to be recognized as the daughter of the artist."

The court explained that it ordered the exhumation due to the "lack of other biological or personal remains with which to compare" the woman's DNA.

The woman, Pilar Abel Martínez, was born in Figueres, Girona, in 1956. The Martinez family has been trying to prove that Dali was her father since 2007. CNN has reached out to Martínez's lawyers for comment.

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