DNA taken from Salvador Dali's body over woman's love child claims

Experts have successfully taken DNA samples from Salvador Dali's body after a woman claiming to be his love child won the right to have his body exhumed for tests.

Maria Pilar Abel gained permission from Catalonia's High Court to obtain samples from the famed surrealist artist's body that will settle the question of her paternity.

Earlier this week the 61-year-old said she was "relieved" after winning a court battle to exhume his body for DNA proof.

Ms Abel claims she was the result of an affair while her mother was working as an employee at the Dali household in the 1950s.

She had been fighting since 2007 to be recognised as Dali's daughter - opposed by the foundation which controls the artist's estate.

Ms Abel says she hopes to change her surname to Dali and is not motivated by thoughts of a potential inheritance.

She said she felt "a lot of relief" at the court's decision.

"I am very positive you know what I mean," she told a press conference. "I think that it has been long enough."

If she does turn out to be a previously unknown child of Dali, it would leave her in line for a share in a multi-million estate.

"If the test is confirmed it would under Catalan law and we are talking about a quarter part of the estate, patrimony that Dali left," said her lawyer Enrique Blazquez.

"This includes copyright, paintings and everything else. But this is something that we will deal with when the time comes."

Salvador Dali with his wife and muse Gala. Credit: AP

Dali died in 1989 with no known children.

He had only one serious partner, Russian Elena Ivanovna Diakonova, better known as Gala Dali.

The artist met Diakonova in 1929 and they remained devoted to each other for the rest of their lives.

Scholars also suggest that Dali was tortured over his sexuality, with many casting doubt on the suggestions that he would have an affair as Ms Abel has suggested.

Ms Abel was not present at the exhumation.