Historic Statue or Modern Art? Town Divided Over Bizarre Restoration Gone Wild
FacebookLocal artist Antonio Guzmán Capel posted a photo of an adjacent carving to clarify just how botched the restoration job really was.
Ultimately, the unseemly sight at 9 Calle Mayor in Palencia, Spain has merely joined a long list of comparable mishaps in the art world. That pantheon includes the 2012 repainting of a fresco of Jesus from the 1800s. Restored by an 81-year-old church member named Cecilia Jimenez, the end result has since been dubbed “Monkey Christ.”
Jimenez asserted that the church parishioner had authorized her repainting, which circles back to Capel’s point that the commissioners ought to take more responsibility for who they hire to do these restoration jobs in the first place.
In a strange twist of fate, however, Jimenez’s botched restoration has become an unlikely hero in the town of Borja, where the painting resides. While initially criticized far and wide, “Monkey Christ” has nonetheless drawn unprecedented tourism to the town of Borja, specifically because of the viral outrage and humor it originally caused.
Other notable restoration fiascos include the repainting of a 15th-century sculpture of the Virgin Mary, baby Jesus, and St. Anne. Made out of wood, the Romanesque statue was naturally brown and was bizarrely repainted in jarring hues of pink and neon green. Not unlike this latest incident, that job was done by a local with obviously questionable expertise.
Getty Images/Wikimedia CommonsThe original compared to the restored “Monkey Christ.”
As it stands, there appears to be no public relations strategy in place to quell local frustrations at this time. Whether the carving will remain as it is now or be restored yet again remains unclear. Additionally, the person or persons responsible for the restoration remain unidentified.
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