Spanish sculpture mocked after botched restoration, compared to 'Monkey Christ'

An artist pointed out a Spanish statue restoration gone wrong. Photo / Facebook / Twitter

Critics have slammed the restoration of a Spanish statue after a renovation went horribly wrong.

The statue, which resides on a building in the city of Palencia, was built in 1919. According to The Sun the work was recently rebuilt after part of the statue came away during previous restoration work.

What was once an ornate sculpture of a woman has been compared on social media to Donald Trump, and something of nightmares, The Guardian reports. An artist named Antonio Guzmán Capel posted the images on Facebook.

"Pictures are a little blurry," he wrote. "Looks like a cartoon character."

"I'm sure whoever did it got paid for it," he said. "The bigger crime was committed by the person who commissioned it and then tried to carry on as though nothing was wrong."

"It's more like a cartoon head than the artistic head of one of Palencia's most emblematic buildings," he added.

— Linda Hubbard (@lindahubbardart) November 11, 2020

— 𝚖𝚘𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚖 (@Modernistics) November 11, 2020

The restoration was compared to the infamous "Monkey Christ", a 2012 statue restoration that also went wrong.

The mural in the Spanish city of Borja was restored by an elderly woman who thought the 19th century work was a looking a bit worse for wear. She opted to spruce up the work herself, but it didn't go quite as planned:

— Alexandro Soage (@alexandrosoage) November 10, 2020

It became known as Monkey Christ due to what looked like fur surrounding the head and a tongue sticking out of its mouth.

The reaction to the latest example of a botched restoration wasn't kind.

"It makes me want to cry, it is terrible. And to think of all the great artists we have," said one.

"My granddaughter could do better with playdough," wrote a third.

Another person wrote: "Spain clearly needs to mandate the use of accredited restorers for all civic jobs. Another sad day for the Spanish cultural heritage."

According to The Sun, the owner of the building where the statue is has yet to publically address the restoration.

Spanish outlet Público calls the building where the statue resides "one of the most traditional buildings in all of Palencia".

Spain has suffered a spate of botched restorations recently. Acre, the country's association of professional restorers have dubbed the have-a-go restorations as and act of "cultural vandalism".

Following the botched restoration of Valencia's Madonna by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo Acre said that it was a sign of the lack of expertise left in the field.

"In recent years, conservation-restoration professionals have been forced to emigrate or leave their professions due to a lack of opportunities," they said in a statement to Europa Press.