Cecilia Giménez, a Spaniard known for her failed fresco restoration, dies at 94

Cecilia Giménez, the Spanish woman whose failed restoration from a centuries-old painting of Jesus Christ captured global headlines More than a decade ago, he died. She was 94 years old.

Authorities in Borja, northeastern Spain, confirmed Giménez’s death on Facebook. Mayor Eduardo Arilla told a local newspaper that she died in a nursing home, The New York Times reported.

The foundation that manages the Borja church where the fresco “Ecce Homo” is displayed stated that since she was little she was a great lover of painting. The foundation called her “one of the most famous figures of 2012” and noted that, “with the best of intentions, she decided to repaint” the fresco in the Santuario de la Misericordia church due to its poor condition.

Giménez’s attempt left Christ’s face cartoonish and unrecognizable, prompting an avalanche of online reactions, memes and parodies featuring famous figures such as Michael Jackson and Homer Simpson.

Its restoration added what appeared to be a mane to the figure of Christ, leading to local artist Elías García Martínez’s small painting, created in the 1910s, being nicknamed the “Monkey Christ.”

At the time, Giménez acknowledged the damage, but told a state station that the parish priest authorized the restoration.

“The priest knew it! He knew it! How could we do something like that without permission? He knew it,” Giménez said. “Everyone who came into the church could see me painting. I didn’t do anything secretly.”

The controversy quickly turned Borja into a tourist destinationand the following year some 57,000 visitors came to see the until then little-known church.

When the controversy subsided, his followers helped Giménez put together an art exhibition featuring 28 of his own paintings, News themezone partner BBC News reported.