STOCKHOLM, Sweden, June 1 (UPI) -- The failure to match two DNA samples doesn't mean the late Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman isn't his mother's biological son, two experts said.
The DNA tests performed on two stamps were claimed to show Bergman was not related to his niece Veronica Ralston, who argued he couldn't have been Karin Bergman's biological son and was switched at birth, The Local reported Wednesday.
The claim, which follows previous questions about the director's paternity, was included a book published by Ralston.
However the experts who performed the tests on the saliva on the stamps dispute the conclusion that results could be interpreted to conclude that Ingmar Bergman, who died in 2007, was born to another woman.
"One can't be certain that the saliva on the stamp was Ingmar Bergman's," said Gunilla Holmlund at the National Board of Forensic Medicine, which conducted the analysis for Ralston.
The DNA tests were performed on stamps from 1935 and 1951, but the older stamp later was determined to be unsuitable.
In her book, Ralston said she began her investigation after reading a book by author Louise Tillberg published last year in which Tillberg claimed her father and uncle were siblings of Ingmar Bergman by Hedvig Tillberg, The Local said.
"When my grandmother Karin Bergman gave birth to her son on July 14, 1918, she had been very sick for a long period of time and it's possible the baby didn't survive," Ralston said.
"I haven't checked with the hospital in Uppsala if there are any records of a stillborn baby, so that is just speculation," she said. "But I think that is exactly what happened and that her husband Erik then switched the child with a baby that Hedvig … had previously given birth to in Stockholm."
