The author of the “restoration” of Ecce Homo in Zaragoza has died

“Ecce Homo” went practically unnoticed until it was “restored” by Cecilia Giménez. His intervention, which provoked a wave of global reactions and made the city of Borja the target of worldwide attention, was the first in a wave of catastrophic restorations of works of art or heritage in Spain.

The author of the controversial restoration of “Ecce Homo”, at the Sanctuary of Mercy of Borja, in Zaragoza, Cecilia Gimenezdied this Monday, aged 94, said the president of the local authority, Eduardo Arillato the Spanish news agency EFE.

“We lost a very dear person in the city”, a woman “of immense kindness”, who had a “difficult life and was very strong”, as she managed to withstand the pressure that accompanied the “Ecce Homo phenomenon“, highlighted the mayor of Borja.

The “Ecce Homo” of the Sanctuary of Mercy, a work by Elias Garciaa 19th century artist, went virtually unnoticed until media coverage of the I restore bad things that happened by Cecilia Giménezin 2012, provoked a wave of global reactions and made the city the target of global attention.

At the end of the 2020s, the city received more than 10,000 visitors per year, from all over the world, totaling more than 200,000 people since the infamous restoration — which gave the location unprecedented international recognition, says EFE.

Cecilia Gimenez decided to work on the original painting after witnessing its deterioration. The result of his intervention, which crossed the globe, mobilized experts in art and heritage, and gave rise to a movement on social media for the preservation of the restoration.

The process served as inspiration for the documentary “My Ecce Homos“, by sociologist Marco Rosattodirected based on the thesis project in Humanities by researcher Antonia Rodríguez, premiered on the tenth anniversary of the restoration’s revelation.

Giménez’s intervention also inspired the opera “Behold the Man“, by Paul Fowler, with libretto by Andrew Flack, premiered at the Evelyn Smith Music Theater at the University of Arizona.

Cecilia Gimenez he died no Lar of the Holy Spiritin Borja. “It was kindness until the end”, having died as he wished, alongside his son, also living in the same home, explained Eduardo Arilla. According to the mayor, the costs of the residence were covered by the sale of tickets and promotional items for “Ecce Homo”.

“A social phenomenon that became a social purpose“, commented Arilla.

It was not a unique case

Unsuccessful restorations are not uncommon. In recent years, there have been numerous cases of catastrophic interventions in works of art or historical heritage — which, curiously, find fertile ground in Spain.

In 2018, he shocked Spain again. “I’m not a professional, but I always liked restoring. The sculptures were just horrible and needed repair, so I painted them as best I could, with the colors that looked the best and the neighbors loved it.”

That’s how Maria Luisa Menendezfrom Rañadoiro, in Asturias, justified having “restored” the 15th century religious sculpture, which was quite… garish.

In the same year, a 16th century Spanish sculpture which depicts Saint George, in the Church of San Miguel de Estella, in Navarra, was restored at the request of a parish priest who did not intend to improve the entire work — but only “to clean a space that was dirty”. The restoration of the sculpture, carried out by a local craftsman, was at the time considered part of the intervention at Ecce Homo.

In 2020, another disastrous restoration took place in Spain — this time, a copy of the “Immaculate of the Escorial”, a painting by a collector from Valencia, which underwent a restoration that left the .

In the same year, one of the sculptures that adorns an early 20th century building in Palencia, originally the smiling figure of a woman who guarded a flock, was also “restored”.

According to the inhabitants of the Spanish town, after the restoration the sculpture “more resembles the head of a cartoon character.” And there were even those in it.

In November 2022, a historic church of Santa María del Castilloin Castronuño. The “intervention” was discovered by the local mayor, whocame across something highly disturbing: someone had posted cement in one of the church archesin clearly amateur restoration work.

Apparently, the objective was to prevent the eastern flank of the church from falling. According to the mayor, the renovation work had been done by a “masked restorer” — who probably considers himself a superhero. But most Spaniards look up to him more like a villain.

“The story of ‘Ecce Homo’ continues to repeat itself across the country”said at the time Miguel Angel Garciaspokesperson for the Heritage Association of the Province of Valladolid, a small consortium of local residents trying to avoid this type of restoration.

In the words of the children’s book writer Mar Villarroelif Spain’s blessing was to have so much history, then your curse was that so many things were at risk of being lost through negligence.

“Cement is a scandal, it’s ugly, yes,” said Villarroel. “But do you want to know what the real scandal? It’s just that those responsible let the church stay like this”said Villarroel.