Behold the Monkey: Woman wants royalties for epic restoration of Jesus painting fail

Remember that story about the worst restoration of a Jesus painting ever?

Back in August, we learned that an elderly Spanish woman took it upon herself to restore Ecce Homo, a painting donated to the Centro de Estudios Borjanos in Borja, Spain, by the granddaughter of 19th-century painter Elías García Martínez.

It seems the 80-year-old woman is now "lawyer-ing up."

The Young Turks' Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur report that the daily Spanish-language newspaper El Correo says that she has hired lawyers and wants royalties from the fees church owners are charging visitors.

According to The Young Turks, "80-year-old Cecilia Gimenez, initially defended her volunteer work saying she was restoring the decaying Ecce Homo ("Behold the Man") portrait because no one else would. The before and after pictures went viral across the globe and tourists began arriving in droves — but very few were leaving donations according to Ars Technica. The sanctuary's owners, the Santi Spiritus Hospital Foundation, reportedly made $2,600 in four days from visitors wanting to see Ecce Mono, or "Behold the Monkey" as it's now called.

The Young Turks showed some of the memes based on this restored work, which are absolutely hilarious. Watch:


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D. Beeksma

One of the growing crowd of American "nones" herself, Deborah is a prolific writer who finds religion, spirituality and the impact of belief (and non-belief) on culture inspiring, fascinating and at times, disturbing. She hosts the God Discussion show and handles the site's technical work. Her education and background is in business, ecommerce and law.

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  • http://www.houseofbetazed.com Mriana

    I think they should throw some of the money they are getting for it her way. I sort of like it because it's closer to being more authentic, if Jesus actually lived. She didn't get the nose quite right, but the complexion is better than the original, as well as his hair. He's not so white, which is not normal for that area, which I figured out as a child. The restoration is not perfect, esp the nose and forehead, but I wouldn't call it "Behold the Monkey". I take a little offence to the new title given how I view it and a better artist, with something similar in mind, might have made the painting closer to my view (love the Bob Ross resemblance, almost nailed it there), if this one could be fixed that is (I know it probably can't). It's difficult when you've spent years thinking that, if Jesus lived, he didn't look white, but more Egyptian or African-mix, to deal with such a title. Although we are apes, thus the title should more properly be "Behold the Ape". Of course, I think I've always had an odd way of viewing things, than most people.

  • The JesusMAN

    She ruined the painting but you gotta admit it looks pretty cool on a tshirt: http://goo.gl/nNNmP