Restoration is an art unto itself!
We imagine highly trained individuals crammed in the basement of a museum, slaving over
the art with many tiny paint brushes.
But occasionally, things go wrong, resulting in hilarious consequences.
For this list, All Things Top 5 ranks the Top 5 Funniest Art Restorations from Around
the World!
Sometimes there are only mistakes and not just happy little accidents!
Number 5 Potato Head of Palencia!
Behold the latest art "restoration" gone completely wrong in Spain.
Located on a historic façade in the Spanish city of Palencia, this sculpture was once
a stunning masterpiece dating back to 1922, that is until its head fell off.
This statue has been left disfigured after a mysterious restorer tried to repair its
dismembered head resulting in a melted face with two round cavities standing in for eyes,
a misshapen lump for a nose, and a mouth reminiscent of a
blow-up doll.
When the head was reunited with its body, the locals noticed something was not quite
right.
Its once beautiful face now looked like a skinned potato.
It remains unclear who created this abomination, but artists and restorers have made it clear
that it was not a professional.
Number 4 Ain’t George!
When the Church of San Miguel de Estella in Navarre, Spain, set out to restore its 500-year-old
statue of the legendary St. George on horseback, clad in armor, and fighting a dragon, it wasn’t
counting on becoming the laughing-stock of the internet.
The sculpture was commissioned to be restored by the Parrish priest of the church and was
carried out by a local arts and crafts teacher known simply as Carmen by the media.
Unfortunately, the 500-year-old sculpture now resembles something out of a children’s
cartoon.
The paint has left Saint George with a rosy pink face, a comically red and gray suit of
armor, and beady little eyes.
The church and the company responsible were both fined 6,000 Euros.
Fortunately, after three months of work, at a cost to the church of 33,000 Euros, the
artwork has been successfully unrestored to its original appearance.
This is around three times what it would have cost to have it professionally restored in
the first place.
Number 3 Santa Barbie!
Historian Milton Teixeira was shocked to discover than an overenthusiastic restorer whored up
the statue of Santa Barbara at Brazil’s Santa Cruz da Barra Chapel.
The dramatic makeover gave the statue a pale complexion, over the top eyeliner, gaudy wardrobe,
and a deer in a headlight expression.
The process to undo the damage took 6 months and remove up to four layers of paint to restore
the statue’s original appearance.
Teixeira, a frequent visitor to the church for 20 years, was nonetheless horrified.
In what turned into an episode of Extreme Makeover, Teixeira told the local news outlet
that “They turned Santa Barbara into Barbie!”
Number 2 Sweet Baby Jesus!
A Canadian church had a vandalism problem, where local thugs repeatedly decapitated the
head of Baby Jesus held by the Virgin Mary.
So local artist, Heather Wise, stepped in and offered to create a replacement head free
of charge, and the church happily accepted.
But what they got was a spikey headed monstrosity that looked less like Baby Jesus and more
like a meth addicted Maggie Simpson.
Heather Wise claimed that the terracotta face, which soon began melting in the rain, was
just a temporary placeholder while she carved a stone replacement.
After seeing all the media coverage, the remorseful thief felt guilty and returned the original
head.
Heather Wise, however, wanted her Spiny Turtle Shell from Mario Kart back because it turned
out to be her most famous work of art.
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Number 1 Monkey Jesus!
A sweet old lady named Cecilia Giménez attempted to restore Ecce Homo, a century-old fresco
of Jesus crowned with thorns and put her small Spanish town of Borja, Spain on the map.
The octogenarian had the best of intentions when she set out on her own and without permission
to work on the deteriorating fresco, but her skills were not quite up to the task.
The restoration is universally mocked as Monkey Jesus or “Ecce Mono”, which is Latin
for “Behold The Monkey!”
Ironically the botched restoration draws four times more tourists every year and the sweet
old lady is now considered a local hero.
However ugly the fresco may be, Monkey Jesus is printed on T-shirts, appeared in a small
film, and nearby vineyards are fighting over the right to use the image on wine labels.
In an ironic twist, that not so sweet lady Cecilia has hired two layers who now insist
that she deserves a cut of the church’s profits.
Proving that art is truly in the eye of the beholder.
Do you agree or disagree with our list?
Did these amateur artists end up creating something more popular than the original?
Comment below and watch our other videos and subscribe to All Things Top 5!