Dilip Kuner
A BUNGLING restorer has wrecked a 17th century painting not once but twice.
The owner of the copy of The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables by the baroque artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo was left regretting his decision to hand over €1,200 to have it spruced up.
The private art collector in Valencia would probably have done better to pay a specialist to do the job rather than the furniture restorer he actually chose.
Having botched his first attempt to renovate the picture the hapless restorer decided to have another go. This went no better with the ‘finished painting’ looking more like a police photofit image rather than the demure Virgin Mary gazing heavenwards.
The incident recalls the infamous ‘monkey Christ’ picture that hit international headlines in 2012.
Cecilia Giménez, who was aged 81 at the time, was worried that a flaking and faded painting on her local church’s wall was in danger of being further damaged by a leak.
Keen to save it she picked up her brushes to restore the 100-year-old image, only for it to end up looking more like a potato.
Town hall official Juan Maria Ojeda said the work had been ‘done with good intentions’ but had quickly got out of hand, resulting in the rather childish appearance of Christ.
To make it worse her granddaughter had recently made a donation to the town hall which was earmarked to restore the very same painting.
