MADRID — A Spanish court ordered the exhumation of the corpse of Salvador Dalí in order to settle a woman’s claim to be recognized as the daughter of the Surrealist painter.

The court said that DNA testing should be done on Dalí’s corpse because no other remains or belongings were available that could allow a proper examination to settle the paternity claim.

Pilar Abel, a Tarot card reader, wants to be recognized as Dalí’s daughter, born as a result of what she has called a “clandestine love affair” that her mother had with the painter in the late 1950s in Port Lligat, the fishing village where Dalí and his Russian-born wife, Gala, built a waterfront house.

Image Pilar Abel says she is the product of an affair her mother had with Dalí. Credit... Robintownsend/European Pressphoto Agency

Dalí was buried in a crypt below the theater of his hometown, Figueres, which Dalí helped convert into his museum and one of Catalonia’s major tourism destinations. The foundation that manages the museum and other parts of Dalí’s estate said it would appeal the exhumation order, which was decided by a judge from a Madrid court last week but only made public on Monday.