Spain's Professional Association of Restorers and Conservators issued a statement on Tuesday calling for tighter regulations after another Spanish artwork was disfigured during restoration, warning "part of our heritage is disappearing by these disastrous actions."
Details: In the latest example, the unnamed owner of the copy of Baroque artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo's "The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables" paid €1,200 ($1,350) for it to be cleaned by a furniture restorer, according to Europa Press. The images below show the results of two attempts to fix the botched job.
Experts call for regulation after latest botched art restoration in Spain.
— Ticia Verveer (@ticiaverveer) June 23, 2020
Immaculate Conception painting by Murillo reportedly cleaned by furniture restorer. https://t.co/YjtgTSohWB pic.twitter.com/iIkBDsKEkm
The big picture: It's drawn comparisons to a prized fresco of Jesus Christ in Borja that was dubbed "Monkey Christ," after a parishioner's disastrous attempts to clean it in 2012.
- Others compared it to a failed restoration of a 16th-Century statue of St. George at a Navarre church last year. Some likened the new-look St. George to a Playmobil figure, the BBC notes.
- The latest restoration attempt was widely mocked on social media and prompted the British Royal Academy of Arts to launch a meme competition on Tuesday, asking Twitter users: "can do a better job at restoring this copy?"
You beautiful amateur artists. https://t.co/8sZ3AYHziH
— Royal Academy (@royalacademy) June 23, 2020
