Books
Jordi Grau
Marià Lorca and Dalí’s secrets
The ex-mayor of Figueres publishes his memories of the artist
It was Marià Lorca, when mayor of Figueres, who Salvador Dalí told of his wish to be buried in the Galatea Tower in Figueres and not, as had been thought, in Púbol castle, where his wife and muse Gala rested. That conversation took place in Dalí’s hospital room in the Quirón clinic in Barcelona. The painter asked his nurse and Antoni Pitxot to leave the room. That’s when he said to Lorca: “I want to be buried under the dome of the museum.” Lorca was so surprised that he made him repeat his demand. “Don’t tell anyone,” Dalí told him. It is thanks to this conversation that Dalí’s remains today lie below the museum that bears his name.
This is one anecdote in the book ’Els últims secrets de Dalí’ (The Last Secrets of Dalí) by Josep Playà Maset. The book contains memoirs in which Lorca recounts his relationship with the artist and reveals Dalí’s most human side.
Maset is a connoisseur of Dalí and has written several books about the artist. He is also known to be discreet, which is perhaps why Lorca asked him to write his memoirs. The book was eagerly awaited because it was announced it would reveal the second thing that Dalí asked Lorca that day, what the journalist Narcís Pijoan dubbed “the second Dalinian mystery”. And the book indeed reveals it. However, to learn more about the second secret, you had better read the book.
