After a botched restoration of a painting of the Virgin Mary in Valencia got a lot of attention earlier this year, another bad repair job in Spain comes under fire.
According to the The Guardian, a sculpture with the face of a woman smiling appear to have been cartoonishly altered by the restoration effort.
Artist Antonio Guzmán Capel shared images of the sculpture on Facebook comparing the restoration to the infamous attempted restoration of a fresco of Jesus Christ in Borja, Spain, later dubbed “Monkey Christ”.
This restoration is guaranteed to make you exclaim the name of its subject; Jesus Christ!
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s original work (left) and two attempts at restoring a copy of it
It seems restoration projects that leave artworks looking drastically “altered” have become something of a thing in Spain lately. When the Virgin Mary painting was altered twice by a furniture restorer in Valencia this June, experts called for increased regulation in the restoration of artworks.
Fernando Carrera, a professor at the Galician School for the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, told the Guardian,
“Can you imagine just anyone being allowed to operate on other people? Or someone being allowed to sell medicine without a pharmacist’s license? Or someone who’s not an architect being allowed to put up a building?”
Well, if you ask me, this cartoony restoration looks a lot like claymation by Nick Park, creator of Wallace & Gromit.
(via ArtNews)