The damaged fresco of Ecce Homo on the left, and the restored version on the right.
By the time she returned, her disastrous efforts had been discovered and Gimenez became a global laughingstock.
The botched effort became the talk of the internet, inspiring a slew of memes and jokes.
Journalists likened the restoration to Rowan Atkinsons Mr. Bean defacing Whistlers Mother.
Some compared the painting to a blurry potato and a monkey.
Others dubbed itBeast JesusandEcce Mono(Behold the Monkey).
Gimenez felt so humiliated that she cried for days and refused to eat, her relatives said.
Eventually, she went to a psychiatrist and took medication.
Cecilia Gimenez, whos restoration attempt was once ridiculed and mocked, is now a local celebrity.
She hands out prizes for a competition of young artists, who paint their own Ecce Homo portraits.
People recognize her on the streets and cry, ‘It’s Cecilia!
It’s Cecilia!’
Shes even entitled to forty-nine percent of the proceeds that results from souvenir sales.
The rest goes to the Martinez family.
Why are people coming to see it if it is such a terrible work of art?
Its a pilgrimage of sorts, driven by the media into a phenomenon.
God works in mysterious ways.
Your disaster could be my miracle.
Mr Beans restoration of James McNeill WhistlersArrangement in Grey and Black No.
1(Whistlers Mother), from the movieBean, 1997.
An assortment of Ecce Homo souvenirs.
Photo credit:NYPost
A collection of Ecce Homo memes on the internet.
Tourists line up to see Ecce Homo at the Sanctuary of Mercy church in Borja, Spain.
Photo credit:NYPost
Sources:Artnet/Mail Online/NYTimes/Boston University
