Today in 2012, the New York Times reported on what it called “probably the worst art restoration project of all time.”
Thanks to an amateur artist, a fresco of Jesus in a church in northeastern Spain ended up looking quite different.
The original image was not quite a century old, the work of
It showed Jesus wearing a crown of thorns while looking up to heaven.
It was a pretty standard Catholic fresco… until Cecilia Giménez got involved.
The octogenarian had been attending services at Santuario de la Misericordia in Borja regularly; she said she admired the painting and was upset to find that the paint had started to flake off the walls.
But instead of urging the church to hire a professional, trained restoration team, she went to work herself, proving that not every project is a DIY project.
She made small touch-ups at first, then a much bigger effort that was not so much a restoration as it was a completely new work.
It was now a piece of outsider art: the once-classical looking Jesus now had a five o’clock shadow, and his crown of thorns looked more like the bushy hairdo that Andre the Giant had in the movie The Princess Bride.
As for the face, people on social media started referring to the Ecce Homo painting as Ecce Mono, a Latin/Spanish mashup meaning “Behold the monkey.”
There were memes of the new painting everywhere online.
The authorities had been investigating what they thought was vandalism, until Giménez came forward and explained that she’d been trying to help.
She also claimed that this wasn’t a secret restoration, that she’d worked during the day, that the priests knew about it and that she hadn’t actually finished.
Experts concluded the original art couldn’t be restored, as the artist’s family had initially hoped.
But having the Giménez painting up on the wall, such as it was, kind of worked out.
The story of the well-meaning but odd attempt at art preservation had made such big news around the world that people started traveling to Borja to see the church and the painting for themselves.
The church started charging admission to these new tourists, which raised money for local charities.
And of course when you have tourists coming into town, that benefits hotels and restaurants and the local economy as a whole.
One fan of the new painting put it this way: “God works in mysterious ways. Your disaster could be my miracle.”
Today in 2019, a youngster named Bethan visited the Poole Museum in Dorset, England.
According to the museum, Bethan’s mum explained to her about how museums collect and preserve special objects and show them to visitors.
After hearing this, Bethan decided to give the museum her favorite rock.
As the museum explained later, “She asked that we put it behind glass and look after it, so that everyone could see and enjoy it.”
And that’s what the museum did!
A Town, if Not a Painting, Is Restored (The New York Times)
Unassuming rock from Dorset Museum goes viral again (Dorset Live)
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Images via Wikicommons
