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November 15, 2020 1:49 PM Subscribe
The potato head of Palencia: defaced Spanish statue latest victim of botched restoration (The Art Newspaper, Nov. 11, 2020) Conservation experts in Spain are once again calling for stricter regulations within the sector after yet another work has been irreparably damaged by an amateur restorer. Adorning the facade of a high street bank in the north-western city of Palencia, the statue, first unveiled in 1923, once depicted a smiling woman carved among a pastoral scene of livestock. Behold the latest art "restoration" gone completely wrong in Spain: A melted face with two round cavities standing in for eyes, a misshapen lump approximating a nose, and an agape maw of a mouth (NPR, Nov. 11, 2020).
Who Did This? Yet Another Amateur Art Restorer in Spain Has Absolutely Demolished a Once-Beautiful Artwork (artnet News, Nov. 10, 2020) When will the butchery end? [...] What was once a handsomely carved smiling female figure surrounded by livestock has been transformed into a claymation nightmare.
Recent amateur art restoration attempts in Spain:
Another Spanish Painting Ruined by Amateur Restorer Prompts Call for Regulation (Art Law and More, June 25, 2020) A copy of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s (1617-1682) painting of the Virgin Mary is the most recent victim to befall the work of an amateur restorer. The Valencia-based collector who owns the painting paid a well-meaning furniture restorer €1,200 (£1,087) to clean and restore the artwork to its former glory. But the shocked owner soon discovered that the Virgin’s angelic face had instead been “completely disfigured” into a misshapen lump, despite two attempts to repair it.
There are currently no laws in Spain to prohibit inexperienced and unqualified people from restoring artwork. Spain’s Professional Association of Restorers and Conservators (ACRE) released a statement criticising this lack of regulation, which they said “translates into an absence of protection of our heritage.” María Borja, one of ACRE’s vice-presidents also explained that this type of bungled restoration in Spain is “unfortunately far more common than you might think…we only find out about them when people report them to the press or on social media.”
The original painting was a copy of Murillo’s The Immaculate Conception of El Escorial (1660-1665).
‘The Statues Really Needed Painting’: An Amateur Artist Defends Her Neon ‘Restoration’ of a 15th-Century Religious Shrine (artnet News, Sept. 10, 2018) Mary's makeover includes lipstick, eyeliner, and green hair. [...] The most recent “restoration” plunder in Spain has taken place in the northwestern region of Asturias, in the village of Rañadorio. A local tobacco shop owner, María Luisa Menéndez, has brightly repainted a 15th-century sculptural trinity of Mary, Saint Anne, and baby Jesus, as well as two other figures—one of Saint Peter and a second Virgin Mary.
Restorationist Botches 16th-Century Spanish Statue of Saint (Smithsonian Magazine, June 27, 2018) [O]bliterating any of the detail and subtlety of the original composition, St. George was given a fleshy peach face and wide brown eyes, one of which seems to have wandered a bit too far to the right. His armor, horse and saddle were slathered in thick monochromatic swathes of grey and red. [...] The work was a rare example of polychrome sculpture in which the statue is carved then painted using special techniques. The Gloriously Inappropriate Restoration of a 16th-Century Wooden Icon (Atlas Obscura, June 26, 2018) compares the refurbished statue to "a Pixar character" and includes a quote from Estella town mayor, Koldo Leoz: “It’s not been the kind of restoration that it should have been for this 16th-century statue,” he said. “They’ve used plaster and the wrong kind of paint and it’s possible that the original layers of paint have been lost.” [...] The prognosis is poor, however. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper ABC, the art restorer Carmen Usua suggested that it might be impossible to bring the statue back to its original state, due to incorrect sanding, questionable coloring, and dodgy work on the plaster.
San Jorge in 2018, ready for his close-up, via The Guardian.
San Jorge in 2019, the infamous botched art restoration in Spain gets makeover: Now, after three months of work in an official laboratory in the nearby city of Pamplona for a cost of 30,000 euros paid by the parish, St. George is back to normal, the government of Navarra announced. Or almost. There is irreversible damage, with some of the sculpture's colors lost forever, Fernando Carrera, spokesman for Spain's art conservation-restoration association, said.
In 2012, "Monkey Christ," Cecilia Giménez's "interrupted" amateur restoration of Elías García Martínez's Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) church fresco in Borja, Spain's El Sanctuario de Misericordia (Sanctuary of Mercy) became an internet sensation. Ms. Giménez drew further ire when she filed an intellectual property lawsuit over related royalties. “She just wants the church to conform to the law,” said attorney Enrique Trebolle. “If this means economic compensation, she wants it to be for charitable purposes.” In 2013, a merchandising compromise was struck.
In the first three years after the botched restoration, the fresco drew 160,000 tourists to Borja (a town with a population of roughly 5,000). By 2018, tourism income supported a new visitor facility, two salaried caretaking staff, and Borja's home for the aged. (García Martínez’s family hired a University of Valencia art historian to restore the [circa 1930] painting to its original state, but the Borja town council, custodians of the piece, wish to retain Giménez’s version in order to continue generating tourist income for Borja.) The nearby Museum of Colegiata, housed in a 16th-century Renaissance mansion, experienced a rise in annual visits to 70,000 from 7,000 for its religious, medieval art. Giménez now exhibits and sells her original art, and is the inspiration for Behold the Man, La Ópera de Cecilia, a comic opera.
Previously on MetaFilter.
Who Did This? Yet Another Amateur Art Restorer in Spain Has Absolutely Demolished a Once-Beautiful Artwork (artnet News, Nov. 10, 2020) When will the butchery end? [...] What was once a handsomely carved smiling female figure surrounded by livestock has been transformed into a claymation nightmare.
Recent amateur art restoration attempts in Spain:
Another Spanish Painting Ruined by Amateur Restorer Prompts Call for Regulation (Art Law and More, June 25, 2020) A copy of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s (1617-1682) painting of the Virgin Mary is the most recent victim to befall the work of an amateur restorer. The Valencia-based collector who owns the painting paid a well-meaning furniture restorer €1,200 (£1,087) to clean and restore the artwork to its former glory. But the shocked owner soon discovered that the Virgin’s angelic face had instead been “completely disfigured” into a misshapen lump, despite two attempts to repair it.
There are currently no laws in Spain to prohibit inexperienced and unqualified people from restoring artwork. Spain’s Professional Association of Restorers and Conservators (ACRE) released a statement criticising this lack of regulation, which they said “translates into an absence of protection of our heritage.” María Borja, one of ACRE’s vice-presidents also explained that this type of bungled restoration in Spain is “unfortunately far more common than you might think…we only find out about them when people report them to the press or on social media.”
The original painting was a copy of Murillo’s The Immaculate Conception of El Escorial (1660-1665).
‘The Statues Really Needed Painting’: An Amateur Artist Defends Her Neon ‘Restoration’ of a 15th-Century Religious Shrine (artnet News, Sept. 10, 2018) Mary's makeover includes lipstick, eyeliner, and green hair. [...] The most recent “restoration” plunder in Spain has taken place in the northwestern region of Asturias, in the village of Rañadorio. A local tobacco shop owner, María Luisa Menéndez, has brightly repainted a 15th-century sculptural trinity of Mary, Saint Anne, and baby Jesus, as well as two other figures—one of Saint Peter and a second Virgin Mary.
Restorationist Botches 16th-Century Spanish Statue of Saint (Smithsonian Magazine, June 27, 2018) [O]bliterating any of the detail and subtlety of the original composition, St. George was given a fleshy peach face and wide brown eyes, one of which seems to have wandered a bit too far to the right. His armor, horse and saddle were slathered in thick monochromatic swathes of grey and red. [...] The work was a rare example of polychrome sculpture in which the statue is carved then painted using special techniques. The Gloriously Inappropriate Restoration of a 16th-Century Wooden Icon (Atlas Obscura, June 26, 2018) compares the refurbished statue to "a Pixar character" and includes a quote from Estella town mayor, Koldo Leoz: “It’s not been the kind of restoration that it should have been for this 16th-century statue,” he said. “They’ve used plaster and the wrong kind of paint and it’s possible that the original layers of paint have been lost.” [...] The prognosis is poor, however. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper ABC, the art restorer Carmen Usua suggested that it might be impossible to bring the statue back to its original state, due to incorrect sanding, questionable coloring, and dodgy work on the plaster.
San Jorge in 2018, ready for his close-up, via The Guardian.
San Jorge in 2019, the infamous botched art restoration in Spain gets makeover: Now, after three months of work in an official laboratory in the nearby city of Pamplona for a cost of 30,000 euros paid by the parish, St. George is back to normal, the government of Navarra announced. Or almost. There is irreversible damage, with some of the sculpture's colors lost forever, Fernando Carrera, spokesman for Spain's art conservation-restoration association, said.
In 2012, "Monkey Christ," Cecilia Giménez's "interrupted" amateur restoration of Elías García Martínez's Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) church fresco in Borja, Spain's El Sanctuario de Misericordia (Sanctuary of Mercy) became an internet sensation. Ms. Giménez drew further ire when she filed an intellectual property lawsuit over related royalties. “She just wants the church to conform to the law,” said attorney Enrique Trebolle. “If this means economic compensation, she wants it to be for charitable purposes.” In 2013, a merchandising compromise was struck.
In the first three years after the botched restoration, the fresco drew 160,000 tourists to Borja (a town with a population of roughly 5,000). By 2018, tourism income supported a new visitor facility, two salaried caretaking staff, and Borja's home for the aged. (García Martínez’s family hired a University of Valencia art historian to restore the [circa 1930] painting to its original state, but the Borja town council, custodians of the piece, wish to retain Giménez’s version in order to continue generating tourist income for Borja.) The nearby Museum of Colegiata, housed in a 16th-century Renaissance mansion, experienced a rise in annual visits to 70,000 from 7,000 for its religious, medieval art. Giménez now exhibits and sells her original art, and is the inspiration for Behold the Man, La Ópera de Cecilia, a comic opera.
Previously on MetaFilter.
They're all members of a cult of old-school iconoclasts striking back at blasphemous representations of the human form in that most twenty first century of ways - unapologetic trolling.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 2:10 PM on November 15, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by thatwhichfalls at 2:10 PM on November 15, 2020 [5 favorites]
2012's Why Every Church Should Be Blessed With A Muralist As Uncouth As Cecilia Gimenez Before Giménez recreated it, the Santuario de la Misericordia Jesus was an uninspired academic painting by a minor 19th Century artist named Elias Garcia Martinez. Now it's an intensely personal expression of religious faith.
=vs.=
2018's Are Restorers Ruining Spanish Art to Obscure an Ancient Truth? A Theory. Could it be that these “amateur restorationists” — this handicrafts teacher, this 81-year-old woman — are in fact pawns in a much larger game? Could it be that they were hired at a high price or perhaps through blackmail for the sake of covering up some of the church’s most explosive ancient secrets, the clues to which are hidden in art throughout Spain — art that must be destroyed? I believe the answer is yes.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:21 PM on November 15, 2020 [4 favorites]
=vs.=
2018's Are Restorers Ruining Spanish Art to Obscure an Ancient Truth? A Theory. Could it be that these “amateur restorationists” — this handicrafts teacher, this 81-year-old woman — are in fact pawns in a much larger game? Could it be that they were hired at a high price or perhaps through blackmail for the sake of covering up some of the church’s most explosive ancient secrets, the clues to which are hidden in art throughout Spain — art that must be destroyed? I believe the answer is yes.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:21 PM on November 15, 2020 [4 favorites]
What the hell is going on in Spain??
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:24 PM on November 15, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:24 PM on November 15, 2020 [4 favorites]
I was wondering if this was actually some kind of an homage to the ecce homo restoration.
Yeah, when I saw this I immediately assumed it was an intentional "mistake" designed to get some headlines or just for fun. It's easy to do this sort of thing as a painting but as a sculpture, I would have expected it to look much closer to the original even if it's not as good.
It looks like the restorer did a fine job with, for instance, the folds in the cloth around the knee and the hand. To then mess up the head seems suspicious to me. I wonder if the owner of the building paid for it to be restored like this, knowing how much the international press likes these stories.
posted by fight or flight at 2:30 PM on November 15, 2020 [6 favorites]
Yeah, when I saw this I immediately assumed it was an intentional "mistake" designed to get some headlines or just for fun. It's easy to do this sort of thing as a painting but as a sculpture, I would have expected it to look much closer to the original even if it's not as good.
It looks like the restorer did a fine job with, for instance, the folds in the cloth around the knee and the hand. To then mess up the head seems suspicious to me. I wonder if the owner of the building paid for it to be restored like this, knowing how much the international press likes these stories.
posted by fight or flight at 2:30 PM on November 15, 2020 [6 favorites]
It really is so bad that you have to wonder about intentionality, but you see botched work all the time in other fields so I wouldn't discount the power of basic incompetentness.
posted by Dip Flash at 2:41 PM on November 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Dip Flash at 2:41 PM on November 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
The "potato head" sculpture in the first part of the post reminds me of the surreal, intentionally grotesque work of Bruce Bickford, who famously made a bunch of clay animation in collaboration with Frank Zappa. I love Bickford's work, but my comment is not a compliment. I also gotta wonder if this was an intentional botch job of some kind.
posted by SoberHighland at 2:45 PM on November 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by SoberHighland at 2:45 PM on November 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
Beast Jesus is such a great name. It might serve well for a band or a gangster.
posted by doctornemo at 2:47 PM on November 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by doctornemo at 2:47 PM on November 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
Beast Jesus is such a great name. It might serve well for a band or a gangster.
Rhesus Christ, if you please.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:51 PM on November 15, 2020 [8 favorites]
Rhesus Christ, if you please.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:51 PM on November 15, 2020 [8 favorites]
In 20 years, we’ll be reading how some janitor finds a long-locked back room with the real statue’s head tucked away safe and secure with other old works, removed during the decade of dubious do-overs. That is the only eventuality to explain this madness that I can wrap my mind around.
posted by klausman at 2:56 PM on November 15, 2020
posted by klausman at 2:56 PM on November 15, 2020
The bright repainting of the San Jorge statue looked pretty good to me, quite like the colors in Books of Hours - and it’s a statue of a saintly dragon-killer, not all versions of the story require subtlety.
I can see rules against destroying original layers, or only doing restoration with contemporaneously-available material (is lapis paint more or less affordable now?). But requiring everything to stay as brown and faded as it was after three hundred years of varnish and candle smoke is a less obvious call.
posted by clew at 3:02 PM on November 15, 2020 [4 favorites]
I can see rules against destroying original layers, or only doing restoration with contemporaneously-available material (is lapis paint more or less affordable now?). But requiring everything to stay as brown and faded as it was after three hundred years of varnish and candle smoke is a less obvious call.
posted by clew at 3:02 PM on November 15, 2020 [4 favorites]
Really wanted this to be as entertaining botched taxidermy, but they neither take as much hilarious artistic license with the natural form nor are as inconsequential.
What the hell is going on in Spain?? indeed
It reminds me of a great piece several years ago on some NPR syndicated program (would love it else if someone else could find it) about this happening to truly priceless ancient art. To my recollection it was in the context of an antiquities smuggler feeling justified in removing pieces from Egypt, Iraq, etc and getting them into the hands of collectors who would take care of them. The (ex-)smuggler justified their actions with anecdotes of "locals" who damaged them in a comedy of errors: putting concrete on it so their boss wouldnt notice they'd damaged it, then having to chisel the concrete back off, etc as the error propogated up the bureaucratic food chain. The smuggler made me both realize a more complex motivation I hadn't considered before AND was smug (indeed!) with colonialism.
posted by rubatan at 3:08 PM on November 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
What the hell is going on in Spain?? indeed
It reminds me of a great piece several years ago on some NPR syndicated program (would love it else if someone else could find it) about this happening to truly priceless ancient art. To my recollection it was in the context of an antiquities smuggler feeling justified in removing pieces from Egypt, Iraq, etc and getting them into the hands of collectors who would take care of them. The (ex-)smuggler justified their actions with anecdotes of "locals" who damaged them in a comedy of errors: putting concrete on it so their boss wouldnt notice they'd damaged it, then having to chisel the concrete back off, etc as the error propogated up the bureaucratic food chain. The smuggler made me both realize a more complex motivation I hadn't considered before AND was smug (indeed!) with colonialism.
posted by rubatan at 3:08 PM on November 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
Huh, after rubatan’s post and klausman’s I’m wondering if the pre-potato head was sold.
posted by clew at 3:21 PM on November 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by clew at 3:21 PM on November 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
It looks like the restorer did a fine job with, for instance, the folds in the cloth around the knee and the hand. To then mess up the head seems suspicious to me. I wonder if the owner of the building paid for it to be restored like this, knowing how much the international press likes these stories.
I'm thinking maybe the building owner stopped paying halfway through and there or there was a dispute or something, like The Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel. I have nothing to back that up but I can't help but imagine (and chuckling over, I'm a small person, sorry) the restorer contemplating between "Mr Bill" and putting phalluses all over the thing and then going with the former to be original.
posted by mcrandello at 3:29 PM on November 15, 2020 [3 favorites]
I'm thinking maybe the building owner stopped paying halfway through and there or there was a dispute or something, like The Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel. I have nothing to back that up but I can't help but imagine (and chuckling over, I'm a small person, sorry) the restorer contemplating between "Mr Bill" and putting phalluses all over the thing and then going with the former to be original.
posted by mcrandello at 3:29 PM on November 15, 2020 [3 favorites]
The potato head is amazing, I love it. It has big Picasso energy.
Cannot imagine how someone did that, like what were they thinking and what is their process? If only they’d videoed it like that tool restorer guy. I would watch the shit out of the bad art restoration channel.
posted by rodlymight at 4:14 PM on November 15, 2020 [3 favorites]
Cannot imagine how someone did that, like what were they thinking and what is their process? If only they’d videoed it like that tool restorer guy. I would watch the shit out of the bad art restoration channel.
posted by rodlymight at 4:14 PM on November 15, 2020 [3 favorites]
It looks like the restorer did a fine job with, for instance, the folds in the cloth around the knee and the hand. To then mess up the head seems suspicious to me
The head fell off, who ever fixed it didn't deal with anything else.
posted by Max Power at 4:54 PM on November 15, 2020
The head fell off, who ever fixed it didn't deal with anything else.
posted by Max Power at 4:54 PM on November 15, 2020
Years ago, when I was doing a BSc in restoration of decorated surfaces, our class visited a similar class at a college in Cracow. All the students there had lovely old polychrome wooden sculptures from churches to work on. We were very envious, because we had to provide all our own pieces to work on and although we were taught the theory there are very few similar pieces in the UK, and none that we could afford. I blame Henry VIII, and maybe Cromwell too. As far as I could make out, as Poland is very Catholic, the Polish students got their pieces by wandering into the nearest church and asking the priest if they had anything that needed restoring. These were students being properly trained, though, and I expect they weren't allowed to too far off the rails. Seriously Catholic countries like Poland and Spain have heaps and heaps of old decorative church stuff in need of restoration, either on display or kept in a back room if it is especially bad. Not so much in Ireland (bloody Cromwell again). In summary, a lot of Catholic churches are packed with stuff that needs restoring, and professionals need to train on something, but are expensive, so I can see the temptation of letting amateurs have a go.
Incidentally, when my father, raised by severe Scots Presbyterians, married my Irish Catholic mother (possibly at least partially to spite his family), they had to have the wedding in the vestry, as mixed marriages were not allowed a full wedding mass in those days, and he told me that the door into the church was open and he could see that it was "full of idols". Probably many of them in need of restoration.
posted by Fuchsoid at 9:20 PM on November 15, 2020 [9 favorites]
Incidentally, when my father, raised by severe Scots Presbyterians, married my Irish Catholic mother (possibly at least partially to spite his family), they had to have the wedding in the vestry, as mixed marriages were not allowed a full wedding mass in those days, and he told me that the door into the church was open and he could see that it was "full of idols". Probably many of them in need of restoration.
posted by Fuchsoid at 9:20 PM on November 15, 2020 [9 favorites]
Truly, no one expects the Spanish Restoration.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:33 PM on November 15, 2020 [27 favorites]
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:33 PM on November 15, 2020 [27 favorites]
One can buy millenia-old grave goods and eat them, legally, in most countries. I find the outrage hard to entirely understand. (Which doesn't mean I don't think the object itself is funny.)
posted by eotvos at 9:36 PM on November 15, 2020
posted by eotvos at 9:36 PM on November 15, 2020
One can buy millenia-old grave goods and eat them, legally, in most countries.
Hold up a second: what?
posted by mhoye at 9:59 PM on November 15, 2020 [19 favorites]
Hold up a second: what?
posted by mhoye at 9:59 PM on November 15, 2020 [19 favorites]
This happened to the Stations of the Cross sculptures at our family church, a small 200-year old country church in Southern Ontario. About 20 years ago a well-meaning priest who imagined himself to be an artist decided to paint them. He did so in horrible garish colours which completely obliterated all the fine detail. They were originally just white. He also decided to repaint all the original multi-hued stamped tin on the walls powder pink. One of the most recent parish priests didn't like the repainted sculptures as he thought they were tacky, so had them taken down and replaced with hideous cheap modern versions. But so it goes in small country churches. A lot of the original 200-year old stuff in that church has been repainted, altered, removed, or otherwise destroyed by well-meaning parishioners and priests.
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:20 AM on November 16, 2020
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:20 AM on November 16, 2020
It reminds me of a great piece several years ago on some NPR syndicated program (would love it else if someone else could find it) about this happening to truly priceless ancient art. To my recollection it was in the context of an antiquities smuggler feeling justified in removing pieces from Egypt, Iraq, etc and getting them into the hands of collectors who would take care of them. The (ex-)smuggler justified their actions with anecdotes of "locals" who damaged them in a comedy of errors: putting concrete on it so their boss wouldnt notice they'd damaged it, then having to chisel the concrete back off, etc as the error propogated up the bureaucratic food chain.
I suspect you're thinking of the botched repair of King Tut's mask, where the beard was knocked off and then "fixed" in the hopes that nobody would notice that they broke it.
posted by PussKillian at 7:29 AM on November 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
I suspect you're thinking of the botched repair of King Tut's mask, where the beard was knocked off and then "fixed" in the hopes that nobody would notice that they broke it.
posted by PussKillian at 7:29 AM on November 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
This is on a par with people who inject concrete or silicone into other people's buttcheeks for a bigger booty. Ignorant, oblivious to the max.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 9:24 AM on November 16, 2020
posted by a humble nudibranch at 9:24 AM on November 16, 2020
I did not know about the damage to Tut’s burial mask.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:05 AM on November 17, 2020
In August 2013, however, museum workers accidentally knocked off the mask's the distinctive braided beard while repairing a light fixture.Or wait, maybe I did see it in an episode of Mr. Bean.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:05 AM on November 17, 2020
One can buy millenia-old grave goods and eat them, legally, in most countries.Well, one can buy them and do what one wants with them, sometimes if they don't leave their country of origin or did so before a specific date. One could eat them. I can think of some collectors and some objects I wish would. But, sorry for the derail. I don't know of specific examples since eating mummies as medicine went out of vogue.
Hold up a second: what?
posted by eotvos at 8:42 PM on November 21, 2020
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posted by carter at 1:56 PM on November 15, 2020 [7 favorites]