The media have called him “the Ecce Homo of Palencia”

Spain is once again under the spotlight of the international media for a new restoration that has left much to be desired. Antonio Capel, a Spanish artist, shared on November 7 some photographs of the new deformed face of one of the sculptures that adorn a century-old building on Calle Mayor in Palencia, Spain.

“The photos are a little blurry, (but) you can still see the mistake perfectly. This head fell from one of the emblematic buildings of Palencia. Palencia birthplace of artists. Well, someone has made this masterpiece, Borja's new 'Christ', this is because he was made into a Christ, and surely he has been paid for it. But the person who commissioned it has left a greater crime. He looks like a cartoon character.” the artist denounced on his Facebook page.

So far it has not been clarified how the events happened or who was responsible. Capel points out that the original face of the sculpture, which consists of a woman resting in the company of a lamb, could have become detached during maintenance work being carried out on the building. To prevent the absence of her face from being noticed, it was replaced by a very simplified one that in no way refers to the original, and that reveals very poor work.

Capel told CNN reporters that after its publication on social networks, groups of people and reporters have gathered outside the building to observe the disastrous result. “I don't understand why they allow it (…) It doesn't seem normal to me,” Capel told CNN. For its part, the Professional Academy of Conservators and Restorers of Spain stated on its Twitter account that the work carried out on the Palencia sculpture was not a restoration or a professional intervention. Citizens have also shown their dissatisfaction with the results.

A history of poor restorations

It is worth remembering that this is not the first time that Spain has had a viral case of a bad restoration. The first case, and the most famous, was that of Borja's “Ecce Homo”, when a restoration fan intervened on the face of a Jesus that was painted on a church wall. The final result was disastrous, but the case was so well known internationally that it turned the church into a tourist spot for curious people who wanted to observe the new disfigured face.

And in 2018, in Estella, Navarra, a church made the decision to carry out its own restoration on a polychrome sculpture of Saint George from the 16th century. The sculpture, which had already darkened due to the passage of time, was painted with strident reds and grays that did not respect the original tones of the piece. It was later discovered that the priest responsible for the church had hired a crafts school to carry out the work. However, this case had a happy ending thanks to a second intervention carried out by professional restorers who returned the original colors, without first pointing out that the sculpture lost 45% of its original coloration.

With information from CNN, El Confidencial y El País.