Another botched restoration in Spain

-

Spanish church slammed over 'frightening' sculpture restoration 

A lick of paint can do a lot to lift a drab interior, but when it comes to historic sculptures it turns out the job is best left to experts. 

That is what a church in Spain discovered after hiring an arts and crafts teacher to freshen up a 16th-Century wooden sculpture of St George. 

Images shared on social media showed the warrior with a transformed pink face and bright coloured armour. 

Cultural officials have blasted the botched attempt as "frightening". 

 "We cannot tolerate more attacks on our cultural heritage," Spain's art conservation association (ACRE) said in a statement. "It shows a frightening lack of training of the kind required for this sort of job." 

The parish priest in the northern town of Estella simply wanted the sculpture to be cleaned and did not intend for it to be restored, the Efe news agency reports. 

But the move has enraged local officials who are demanding to know why they were not informed of the church's plans. 

"The council wasn't told and neither was the regional government of Navarre," the town's Mayor Koldo Leoz told The Guardian newspaper. 

"They've used plaster and the wrong kind of paint and it's possible that the original layers of paint have been lost. This is an expert job it should have been done by experts," he said. 

The group in charge of the project - Karmacolor - reportedly uploaded a video to Facebook showing every stage of the project but later deleted it. 

"What a great loss," one Facebook user commented underneath a photograph of the sculpture. "Prison sentences would prevent these attacks on our heritage," another said. 

Others compared it to the now infamous attempt to restore the Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) fresco of Jesus Christ in 2012. 

Elderly parishioner Cecilia Gimenez took her brush to the 19th-Century artwork following years of deterioration due to moisture, but after much ridicule the result was labelled "Monkey Christ". 

Some positives did come from her efforts however, as the town drew thousands more visitors eager to see her "restoration" and she even had her own art exhibited. 

Gimenez even starred in a music video for a song she inspired which told the story of her attempt from a more sympathetic angle.




The List of Botched Jobs: 

Ecce Homme (Monkey Christ)




Jesus and Mary Statue

 

The Jolly Devil (not botched but controversial)


Palencia "Trump" Statue


Not Spanish and not a Restoration but funny:

 

Comments

Joseph said…
Hi Graham,

Another "crime art" made in Spain. It seems that Spain is full of warriors of the big botches. The worst thing is that these botchers don´t know that they are useless. On the contrary, they think that they are expert. As Mrs. Gimenez who didn´t saw her ridicule and, after people laughed at her frightening "restoration", she thought that people beheld it pleasant. It´s unbelievable and sad.

They said: "We cannot tolerate more attacks on our cultural heritage", as if this was the first case, but this is one of many cases which we have had in Spain. I wonder where the government, the regional government, the councilor and the mayor of Stella were who did nothing about it. Does anyone think that artwork belongs everyone, national and foreing people? However I surrender because it´s impossible that Mrs. Gimenez can understand that artwork belongs to one and all.

See you.
Saturday, 04 July, 2020
Graham said…
Hello Joe,

Somehow I've deleted my reply to your comment. I hope you had read it.
Tuesday, 21 July, 2020
Anonymous said…
I think actually there is a problem: People develope jobs that they are not prepared to, in a lot of areas, and this is a example of it.
However, in this case the real thing is before of this mediatic situation nobody was interested in this kind of art. But, as the article point out in the case of “Monkey Crist” the town was received more visitours than ever to watch the restoration, so what is the value of the art now? Our sociaty is interest just in the currency scandal not in the historic art. BARBARA
Sunday, 18 October, 2020
Graham said…
Hello Barbara,

I completely agree with you.

I suspect that we haven't seen the last botched art job - someone will see it as a way of achieving their fifteen minutes of fame and of course, making a small fortune.


I think the problem is that people take on jobs that they are not trained for and this is one such example (an example).

However, in this case the thing is that before this media frenzy, nobody was interested in this kind of art. But, as the article points out in the case of “Monkey Crist” the town has received more visitors than ever to see the restoration, so what is the value of the painting now? Our society is just interested in financial scandals not in historic art.
Thursday, 22 October, 2020
Post a Comment