A botched artwork restoration in Spain, dubbed the “Potato Head” of Palencia, has gained international attention, recalling the “Monkey Jesus” restoration in 2012.
Local artist Antonio Guzman Capel was one of the first to post on Facebook about the statue last week, writing that it “looks like a cartoon character,” according to a translation of his post.
The statue, which is part of a relief sculpture on an office building in Palencia owned by a bank, portrays a woman with a sheep and a ram. Capel said a florist tipped him off to the restoration, which was completed a few years ago.
“I was surprised. How could they have done this?” Capel told the Associated Press on Wednesday. “This must be at least 10 years old, and we’re only finding out now.”
Capel told CNN that he doesn’t know who made the restoration or who commissioned it. He added that he “doesn’t understand why amateur restorers think they can take on these projects or why those responsible for the artworks authorize the work.”
“I don’t understand why they allow it,” Capel said. “It doesn’t seem normal to me.”
Spain’s Professional Association of Conservators and Restorers tweeted, “THIS #IsNotRestoration,” in response. “It’s a NON-professional intervention,” it wrote, according to a translation of the tweet.
ESTO #NoEsRestauración. Es una intervención NO profesional.
?Polémica en Palencia por una restauración que deja hecho un «cristo» el relieve de una fachada https://t.co/18pEBXjKH4
— ACRE (@A_CR_E) November 9, 2020
The cartoonish appearance immediately drew parallels to the botched Ecce Homo restoration in 2012, when a parishioner at a Spanish church with a damaged fresco of Jesus Christ volunteered to restore the 19th-century Elias Garcia Martinez mural and gave birth to “Monkey Jesus.”
The restoration brought critical condemnation, but visitors to the church surged, quickly making it a major tourist attraction, according to the New York Post. Though CNN reports that “crowds of people have been gathering to take a look at the statue” after Capel’s photos went viral, it remains to be seen whether it will bring the enduring tourism boost that Ecce Homo did.
Another failed Spanish restoration in 2018 did not garner the same widespread attention. That restoration was commissioned without the aid of professionals trained in restoration and without consulting the local city council.
According to CNN, the restoration was of a church fresco portraying St. George, in Estella, located in the Navarre region of Spain. It turned a monochrome, faded image of the dragon-slaying saint into a bright, doe-eyed knight wearing a “flashing red and grey armor suit.”
¡#España lo hizo otra vez!
La restauración del San Jorge de Estella, es el nuevo #EcceHomo 2.0 ???? pic.twitter.com/scwj4xctbH— Isrrael Villablanca (@loockito) June 26, 2018
A Palencia City Hall spokesman told the Associated Press that the restoration would likely be investigated by regional authorities.
