That's the Virgin Mary? Another botched art restoration in Spain sparks calls for regulation

Unskilled 'restorers' have caused irreparable damage to precious artworks in Spain over the years

Bartolome Esteban Murillo’s original, left, and one of the attempts at restoration. Cedida por Coleccionista / Europa Press

In Spain, another art restoration attempt gone awry has caused conservation experts to call for more regulation of the field.

A copy of a renowned painting by baroque artist Bartolome Esteban Murillo was rendered unrecognisable from its original state after a private art collector asked a furniture restorer to clean it for $1,350 (Dh4,960).

Despite two restoration attempts, The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables, which once showed a cherubic portrait of the Virgin Mary, now features the figure with red lips and crooked eyes.

The original, left, and both restoration attempts, right:

Cedida por Coleccionista / Europa Press

The botched endeavour recalls the 2012 incident of the "Monkey Christ" in the Spanish town of Borja, where a parishioner tried to restore a faded fresco of Christ by Elias Garcia Martinez titled Ecce Homo that ended up as an ape-like character instead.

The original version of the painting Ecce Homo (L) by 19th-century painter Elias Garcia Martinez, the deteriorated version and the restored version by an elderly woman in Spain (right). AFP

In 2018, a 500-year-old statue of the St George in Navarre was mocked online after a restoration transformed the work into a cartoonish figure. The work was done by a local teacher, and the church that commissioned the work, as well as the company responsible, were fined $6,840. The statue was restored back to its original state at an additional cost of $37,000 to the church.

Fernando Carrera, a professor at the Galician School for the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, told The Guardian: "We see this kind of thing time and time again and yet it keeps on happening. Paradoxically, it shows just how important professional restorers are.

"We need to invest in our heritage, but even before we talk about money, we need to make sure that the people who undertake this kind of work have been trained in it.”

Carrera said that laws in Spain permit people with no skills or experience in restoration to undertake such projects.

Maria Borja, a vice president at the same school, added that botched restoration attempts are "far more common than you might think" and are only heard of when the mishaps are shared with the press or on social media.