Arts
fromHyperallergic
9 hours agoCecilia Gimenez, Patron Saint of Bad Restorations, Dies at 94
Cecilia Giménez’s 2012 amateur restoration of the 'Ecce Homo' fresco became a viral artwork that boosted Borja's tourism and economy.
Many remember the Ecce Homo painting that decorates one of its walls not for the original 19th-century brushstrokes, but for the disastrous restoration carried out by a woman then just over 80 years old who acted spontaneously and without asking anyone's permission, though with good intentions. The work of Cecilia Gimenez, who passed away this Monday at the age of 94, was not only catastrophic, blurry, and unrecognizable, but also became an object of ridicule.