Spanish Parishioner Who Found Notoriety for Mishandling a Prized Fresco Restoration Has Died at Age 94
The elderly woman from Spain who made international headlines for her infamous repair job on a valuable religious painting has died at the age of 94.
The woman, a resident of the town of Borja in northeast Spain, rose to prominence thirteen years ago after she undertook to restore a 100-year-old painting titled Ecce Homo located in her parish church.
Giménez's restoration effort spread across the internet and was dubbed "Monkey Christ", because the resulting likeness of Christ's head bearing a resemblance to a hairy monkey.
Local Confirmation and Homage
The 94-year-old's death was announced by the town's mayor, Eduardo Arilla, in a social media post, where he described her as a "great lover of painting from a very early age".
"Descansa en paz Cecilia, your memory will live on with us," the mayor posted.
Arilla further referenced Giménez's "now-legendary restoration of Ecce Homo" in the summer of 2012, which "due to the deteriorated condition it presented, Cecilia, acting in good faith, chose to repaint the work over".
The Artwork's History and the Fateful Intervention
The Ecce Homo ("Behold the Man" in Latin) by nineteenth-century artist Elias Garcia Martinez had resided for more than a hundred years in the Sanctuary of Mercy Church near Zaragoza.
At the time, Giménez, then 81, explained that parishioners had "traditionally fixed everything here", and that she had been given the go-ahead from the local priest to do the work.
She added at the time that anybody who came into the Church would have observed she was applying paint to the existing image.
A Surprising Tourist Boom
The aftermath of the restoration spawned the "Monkey Christ" internet phenomenon and saw the previously sleepy town of Borja quickly become a significant tourist destination.
The municipality, which had in the past welcomed just five thousand visitors per year, received over 40,000 tourists by 2013, and generated more than €50,000 for charity from the interest.
Currently, officials say that between 15,000 and 20,000 tourists visit Borja each year to see the famous portrait, which is now protected by a protective shield of glass.
Later Life and Local Support
Following the wave of criticism, backed by local residents and well-wishers around the world, Giménez went on to hold an exhibition of her paintings showcasing twenty-eight of her personal paintings.
She was praised by the mayor for her kind-hearted nature and decades of faithful service to the parish.
In the end, what began as a sincere but flawed art repair forged an improbable piece of pop culture and brought remarkable attention and resources to a humble Spanish town.
