Two years after the so called restoration of the Ecce Homo in the Sanctuary of Mercy church in Borja, Spain, things are standing still. The painting was of little artistic significance, all the fame came from an attempt to restore the mural by an untrained amateur in 2012.
In fact, the restoration became viral over the internet in August 2012, pictures of the “restored” artwork appeared all over the world wide web, and even today any search in Google with the term “Ecce Homo” will return dozens of images mocking the "restoration".
Because of the negative attention the "restoration" was causing, some church authorities thought the painting should be covered up, but instead the church began charging visitors to see the mural painting. A year after the failed restoration, tourist activity had raise in such manner that generated more than €50,000 for a local charity, and at some point, Cecilia Giménez, the infamous restorer, tried to get a share of the royalties.
Some studies have been done to propose a treatment to return the painting to its original aspect, but nowadays, the Sanctuary is still being visited by tourists that go to the town just to see the “botched” painting.
The infamous Ecce Homo. The failed restoration of a painting.
