Spanish Parishioner Who Found Fame for Botching a Prized Painting Restoration Has Died at Age 94
The Spanish parishioner who achieved global fame for her infamous repair job on a valuable Jesus Christ fresco has passed away at the age 94.
Cecilia Giménez, from the town of Borja in northeast Spain, became a global sensation 13 years ago after she undertook to restore a 100-year-old painting titled Ecce Homo located in her local church.
Giménez's restoration effort spread across the internet and earned the moniker "Potato Jesus", because the resulting likeness of Christ's head bearing a resemblance to a furry primate.
Official Confirmation and Homage
The 94-year-old's passing was announced by Borja's mayor, Eduardo Arilla, in a social media post, where he described her as a "great lover of painting from a young age".
"Descansa en paz Cecilia, your memory will live on with us," the mayor posted.
Arilla also paid tribute to Giménez's "famous restoration of Ecce Homo" in the summer of 2012, which "due to the poor state of conservation it was in, Cecilia, acting in good faith, chose to apply new paint over the original".
The Painting's History and the Fateful Intervention
The Ecce Homo ("Behold the Man" in Latin) painted by nineteenth-century artist Elias Garcia Martinez had resided for over a hundred years in the Santuario de la Misericordia near Zaragoza.
In 2012, Giménez, then 81, stated that church members had "always repaired everything here", and that she had received permission from the parish priest to do the work.
She added at the time that anybody who entered the Church would have observed she was painting over the original artwork.
A Surprising Economic Lifeline
The aftermath of the restoration spawned the "Monkey Christ" meme and saw the once quiet town of Borja rapidly turn into a major visitor attraction.
The municipality, which had in the past welcomed just five thousand visitors per year, received over 40,000 tourists by 2013, and managed to raise more than €50,000 for charity from the attention.
Today, officials say that somewhere around 15,000 and 20,000 tourists visit Borja every year to see the famous portrait, which is now protected by a protective shield of glass.
Later Life and Community Admiration
After recovering from the wave of criticism, backed by the townspeople and well-wishers around the world, Giménez went on to hold an exhibition of her paintings featuring twenty-eight of her personal paintings.
She was commended by Borja's mayor for her kind-hearted nature and years of faithful service to the church.
In the end, what began as a sincere but unsuccessful act of restoration forged an unlikely cultural icon and provided unprecedented tourist revenue to a humble Spanish town.
