Cecilia Giménez, whose unauthorised ‘restoration’ of a church fresco in Spain brought her unwanted worldwide fame, has died.
In 2012, the then 81-year-old parishioner took it upon herself to touch-up a faded rendering of Christ by Elías García Martínez, originally painted in 1930 on a wall in her local church, the Sanctuary of Mercy, in Borja, Zaragoza. Her amateur efforts of the work, titled in Latin Ecce Homo, distorted the portrait to such an extent it became known as the Ecce Mono (roughly Behold the Monkey) or the Monkey Christ. Giménez maintained that she had permission from the priest.
Local media got hold of the story, and it spread internationally. Originally, the limelight, and mockery, caused Giménez distress and she reportedly fell into depression. Later, however, she warmed to her notoriety, especially as the church decided to keep her efforts intact as it was drawing visitors to parish.
‘Everyone here sees what I did in a different light,’ she told the Guardian in 2015. ‘The restoration has put Borja on the world map, meaning I’ve done something for my village that nobody else was able to do. So many people have come here — and to our beautiful church — to see the painting… they tell me more than 130,000 people.’ In 2016 the Centro de Interpretación Ecce Homo opened with multilingual displays and official merchandise.
Giménez would go on to stage exhibitions of her original work in the village. She died, aged 94, in residential care.
