Culture

Spain Have Done It Again With This Absolutely Horrific Botched Restoration Of Virgin Mary

The paint job was so bad that experts are now asking for restoration regulations.

by Michelle Rennex  23 June 2020
art restoration virgin mary

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The very bad Spanish art restorers are back again with yet another horribly cursed restoration.

Spain has had an absolutely terrible string of luck when it’s come to religious art restoration. In 2018, we saw the a 500-year-old polychrome statue of San Jorge get ~transformed~ into a dinky $2 knock-off Tintin toy.

And most notably, six years prior, an 81-year-old Spanish parishioner made headlines when she turned an almost century-old painting of Jesus into the iconic tourist attraction, Monkey Christ.

Well now Virgin Mary has been given the same horrifying treatment after a private cleaning job went horribly wrong.

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La fallida restauración del Ecce Homo de Borja a cargo de Cecilia Giménez dio la vuelta al mundo en 2012, pero no se trata de un caso único, ya que este tipo de intervenciones inadecuadas sobre el patrimonio artístico son más frecuentes de lo que parece y provocan "cambios irreversibles". Es lo que acaba de ocurrir en Valencia, donde un coleccionista llevó a un restaurador de muebles una copia de una de las famosas Inmaculadas de Murillo. Su sorpresa fue mayúscula cuando, al devolverle la pieza, vio que el rostro estaba completamente desfigurado y que, además, guardaba un inquietante parecido con el inclasificable Ecce Homo de Borja. Al pedirle explicaciones al autor de la 'restauración', este intentó 'solucionar' el problema, pero el resultado del trabajo nada tiene que ver con la original, como se puede ver en la imagen (a la izquierda la original, arriba a la derecha tras la primera intervención y debajo, después de que el autor intentara 'solucionarlo'). La vicepresidenta de Relaciones Internas y coordinadora de la Asociación Profesional de Conservadores Restauradores de España explica que aberraciones como esta son "desgraciadamente mucho más frecuentes de lo que se piensa": "Solo conocemos casos que la sociedad denuncia a través de prensa o redes, pero hay multitud de situaciones donde las obras son intervenidas por personas que no tienen formación. Las obras sufren este tipo de intervenciones no-profesionales, pudiendo, provocar un cambio irreversible" https://bit.ly/3hIYAH8

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According to Europa Press, a private art collector hired a furniture restorer to clean their copy of “The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables”, by Baroque artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, for €1,200 — which comes in at just under a whopping $2,000 AUD.

Sadly for the art lover, after two failed attempts to restore the painting to its natural glory, the Virgin Mary was left giving off huge Mr. Bean-sneezing-on-precious-art energy and looking like a misshapen blob drawn by a four-year-old on a good day.

In a total slap to the face to the mystery restorer, the job was so bad that experts have started to use the botched painting to call for stricter regulations on art restorations in Spain.

Talking to The Guardian, Fernando Carrera, a professor at the Galician School for the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, advised that only trained professionals should be restoring such precious artwork.

“I don’t think this guy – or these people – should be referred to as restorers,” Carrera said. “Let’s be honest: they’re bodgers who botch things up. They destroy things.” Ouch.

While Carrera understands that art restoration isn’t the most important job out there, he believes that regulation is needed to help protect Spain’s heritage and cultural history.

“Can you imagine just anyone being allowed to operate on other people? Or someone being allowed to sell medicine without a pharmacist’s licence? Or someone who’s not an architect being allowed to put up a building?,” Carrera continued. “It shows just how important professional restorers are.”

But the public had different opinions, with people calling for the botched restorations to continue and never stop.

So to all the very bad art restorers: Please never stop. We need your terrible creations in our lives.