Exhumation of Dali’s remains finds his mustache intact

— Forensic FIGUERES, SPAIN experts in Spain have removed hair, nails and two long bones from Salvador Dali’s embalmed remains to aid a court-ordered paternity test that may enable a woman who says she is the surrealist artist’s daughter to claim part of Dali’s vast estate.

Officials said Friday that the artist’s mummified remains were so well-preserved that even his famous mustache had survived the passing of time and remained in “its classic shape of ten past ten,” referring to the hands on a clock.

Dali, who once said “surrealism is me,” is considered one of the founding fathers of the artistic movement. His works in paint, sculpture and cinema, among other disciplines, are shown in museums all over the world and sought by private collectors.

The artistic genius was buried in the Dali Museum Theater in the northeastern Spanish town of Figueres, his birthplace, when he died at 84 in 1989.

The exhumation that began Thursday night followed a longstanding claim by Pilar Abel, a 61-year-old tarot card reader, who says her mother had an affair with Dali in his hometown.

In June, a Madrid judge finally ruled that a DNA test should be performed to find out whether her allegations were true.

Forensic experts opened the artist’s coffin in a sensitive operation that involved using pulleys to lift a 1.5-ton stone slab.

Lluis Penuelas Reixach, the secretary general of the Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation, said Dali’s remains — including his mustache — are well-preserved and mummified after an embalming process was applied 27 years ago. He spoke Friday during a press conference in Figueres.

According to judicial authorities, only five people were allowed to oversee the removal of the samples out of respect for the remains and in order to avoid any contamination.