Which Spanish king awarded Dalí the title of Marquess in 1982?

The Spanish king who awarded Salvador Dalí the title of Marquess of Dalí of Púbol in 1982 was Juan Carlos I. He reigned from 1975 until his abdication in 2014 and was the monarch who restored Spain’s constitutional monarchy after the Franco era.

Juan Carlos I created the title to recognize Dalí’s exceptional contribution to Spanish culture. Its name connected the artist to Púbol, the Catalan village where Dalí owned a castle. Dalí had bought the castle for Gala, and after her death in 1982 he moved there.

The title is sometimes confused with Dalí’s other honors, including the Order of Charles III, which he received as a Knight Grand Cross in 1981. It is also easy to associate the honor with Philip VI, Juan Carlos’s son and successor, but Philip became king only in 2014. Alfonso XIII died decades earlier, while Charles III was a British monarch, not a Spanish one.