BY GEORGE! Statue of England’s patron saint restored in Spain after infamous botched restoration job

A 16TH CENTURY sculpture of Saint George has been restored to its – mostly – original state after receiving an infamously botched makeover. 

The wooden statue of St George astride a horse in San Miguel church in Estella, Navarra, had turned dark brown with age.

But its restoration by a local crafts business left the soldier with a pink face and a look which social media users mercilessly compared to Tintin or Woody from Toy Story. 

Authorities fined the church and the crafts business €6,010 each.

Now, after three months of work in an official laboratory in the nearby city of Pamplona for a cost of €30,000paid by the parish, St George is back to normal. 

However there has been some irreversible damage, with some of the sculpture’s colours lost forever, Fernando Carrera, spokesman for Spain’s art conservation-restoration association, said.