Ecce Homo painting by Elías García Martínez was unremarkable until transformation by well-intentioned but cack-handed amateur...Jesus Christ. The damage inflicted on the mural in the church of the Santuario de la Misericordia in Borja is being investigated by experts, says local press
Somewhere in the north-eastern Spanish city of Borja, an elderly woman is probably praying that the road to hell is not really paved with good intentions.
There can be little doubt that the woman, identified only as an octogenarian local, was just trying to help when she noticed that the face of the scourged Christ on the wall of a small church in the city was looking a bit faded, and decided to freshen it up a bit.Sadly for her – and Elías García Martínez, the 19th-century artist who painted the mural – her brush skills were not quite up to the job.The unnamed amateur has transformed what was once a pleasant, if unremarkable, Ecce Homo into something that more closely resembles a bloated hedgehog than the image of Jesus before Pilate.The press have dubbed her efforts "the worst restoration in history" and "a botched job", and the Borja authorities fear they are right.According to the local paper, El Heraldo de Aragón, the damage inflicted on the mural in the church of the Santuario de la Misericordia is being investigated by experts, but the artist's descendants are said to be unhappy that an individual decided to take the restoration job into her own hands and fear her handiwork is irreversible.Juan María de Ojeda, a city councillor, said the woman, acting "spontaneously and with good intentions", had confessed what had happened as soon as she realised "that things had got out of hand".
and here's what this spawned!
Even Banksy is doing a tribute!
Purported New Banksy Mural Commemorates
Failed Art Restorer Cecilia Gimenez
Over the weekend the above image appeared on Internet image-sharing site 9GAG, ostensibly showing a new mural by British street artist Banksy based on the recent restoration fiasco surrounding Spanish octogenarian Cecilia Gimenez’s heavy-handed alterations to a 19th century portrait of Jesus.
While Gimenez’s failed restoration has spawned many art history-themed images, if the Banksy mural is authentic — it has not yet been posted on his site, where his latest pieces are usually posted — it would be the first artwork created by an artist in response to the story.
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