Two oil paintings, including one owned by Yale University in the United States, have been certified as being the work of Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali, officials said on Tuesday.

Art experts from the Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation knew that the two works existed but up until now they had been unable to locate and authenticate them.

"We had identified the works but we did not know where they were or how to link them to Dali. We thought they were made by him but we had to verify," the director of the foundation's research department, Montse Aguer, told AFP.