Spanish Woman Who Gained Notoriety for Botching a Famous Fresco Restoration Dies at Age 94

The Spanish parishioner who achieved global fame for her infamous repair job on a cherished Jesus Christ fresco has passed away at the age 94.

The woman, a resident of the town of Borja in northeast Spain, became a global sensation thirteen years ago after she attempted to restore a century-old painting known as Ecce Homo housed within her local church.

Giménez's handiwork quickly went viral and earned the moniker "Potato Jesus", because the altered depiction of Christ's head bearing a resemblance to a hairy monkey.

Official Announcement and Homage

The 94-year-old's death was confirmed by Borja's mayor, Eduardo Arilla, in a social media post, where he acknowledged her as a "passionate enthusiast of painting from a very early age".

"Rest in peace Cecilia, your memory will live on with us," Arilla wrote.

Arilla also paid tribute to Giménez's "now-legendary restoration of Ecce Homo" in August 2012, which "due to the poor state of conservation it presented, Cecilia, with the best intentions, decided to apply new paint over the original".

The Painting's Background and the Now-Infamous Intervention

The Ecce Homo ("Behold the Man" in Latin) by nineteenth-century painter Elias Garcia Martinez had resided for more than a century in the Sanctuary of Mercy Church near Zaragoza.

In 2012, Giménez, then 81, explained that church members had "traditionally fixed everything here", and that she had been given the go-ahead from the parish priest to proceed.

She also noted that anyone who came into the church would have observed she was painting over the original artwork.

A Surprising Economic Lifeline

The impact of the restoration spawned the "Ecce Mono" internet phenomenon and transformed the previously sleepy town of Borja quickly become a significant tourist destination.

The town, which had previously seen only five thousand visitors per year, attracted over 40,000 tourists by 2013, and generated more than €50,000 for charity from the attention.

Today, local authorities estimate that between 15,000 and 20,000 tourists visit Borja each year to see the notorious portrait, which is now displayed behind a protective shield of glass.

Legacy and Local Support

Following the wave of criticism, backed by local residents and others globally, Giménez went on to stage an exhibition of her paintings featuring twenty-eight of her own paintings.

She was praised by the mayor for her kind-hearted nature and decades of faithful service to the church.

In the end, what began as a well-intentioned but unsuccessful art repair created an improbable piece of pop culture and provided unprecedented attention and resources to a small Spanish town.