5 historical personalities who were the target of exhumation requests

1. Salvador Dalí

This Thursday (20), the Spanish painter will undergo an exhumation for DNA collection. Maria Pilar Abel Martinez, 61, says she is the daughter of Dalí and has won the right to have the paternity test performed in court. The painter has been buried in a museum in the city of Figueres, 700 km from Madrid, since his death in 1989.

Dalí left no heir, so if she can prove her origin, Maria Pilar could receive part of the inheritance, currently estimated at just over $ 1 billion! Ever wonder if she's right?

2. Leonardo da Vinci

History tells that one of the most famous painters of all time died of natural causes in 1519 at the age of 67. But a team of researchers wants to study da Vinci's remains to determine the exact cause and digitally reconstruct his face.

However, there are some minor problems on this journey: he is supposed to be buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert in Amboise Castle in France. This is not a consensus, as its first deposit was destroyed during the French Revolution. While authorities do not release the exhumation, some scientists try to extract their DNA from some works.

3. William Shakespeare

“Free me, my dear friend, for Jesus' sake, to rummage in the dust enclosed here. Blessed be he that shuneth these stones, and cursed he that troubleth my bones. It is with these inscriptions on the tombstone of his everlasting grave that Shakespeare tries to keep the curious from fumbling with their remains.

But a South African team is seeking permission to exhume the writer's body, which died in 1616 at the age of 52 after acquiring a fever from overdrinking. Scientists want to study eating habits, lifestyle and even the assumption that the playwright enjoyed smoking weed. In addition, a radar scanned his tomb in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England and found that his skull was probably missing!

4. Napoleon Bonaparte

The famous French conqueror died in 1821 at the age of 51 from a gastric ulcer. In 1840, he suffered the first exhumation: his body was taken from the islands of Saint Helena, the coast of Africa, where he was exiled when he died, and taken to the Invalides Palace in Paris, where several military men are buried.

However, some researchers believe that his body was actually concealed by the British to cover up a murder! Napoleon would have been poisoned, so the English, who ran the islands of St. Helena, would have given the body of a poor servant to the French authorities to bury in the Invalides' Palace and hidden Napoleon's remains in Westminster Abbey. In 2002, a request for exhumation was denied.

5. Galileo Galilei

Galileo is buried in the Basilica of Santa Cruz in Florence, Italy, along with other historical personalities such as Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Rossini. He died in 1642 at age 77 due to heart problems.

Galileo was one of the greatest astronomers of all time, but some researchers want to exhume his body to try to understand if he had any vision problems - one of his most famous mistakes was that Saturn was not a round planet. However, the Vatican needs to release this process, which, if it happens, should take time.