Woman Who Ruined Fresco Of Jesus Now Wants To Be Paid
Three images: How the fresco should look (left); how it looked before the "restoration" (center); and what it looked like after Cecilia Gimenez was done. Centre de Estudios Borjanos/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Three images: How the fresco should look (left); how it looked before the "restoration" (center); and what it looked like after Cecilia Gimenez was done.
Centre de Estudios Borjanos/AFP/Getty ImagesCecilia Giménez, the Spanish woman who really messed up when she tried to restore a 19th-century fresco of Jesus, now wants a piece of the action from the 2,000 or so euros ($2,600) her church has collected from tourists coming to see the ruined artwork.
Spain's El Correo reports, according to Gawker's translation, that the 80+-year-old Giménez has hired lawyers to make her case. A court battle is expected. Ars Technica says the church has also lawyered up.
As Eyder wrote last month, by the time Giménez was done with her attempt at restoration, the image was being likened to a werewolf. But news reports in recent weeks also showed that her work has some fans — such as the online Beast-Jesus Restoration Society — and that it is drawing tourists to the Santuario de Misericordia church in Borja.
So now, it appears, we're at the stage of the story where the inevitable legal actions begin.
Which raises a question: