Jesus Scream

Church Restoration gone wRong

An attempt at restoring a fresco from the 19th century in a church in Spain has become the latest famous FAIL item, transforming an artist’s rendition of Jesus into something akin to a psychedelic nightmare, with hints of the darkest corners of Pink Floyd and Edvard Munch.

‘Ecce Homo’, the painting by artist Elias Garcia Martinez, was on display in Borja’s Sanctuary of Mercy Church near Zaragoza for one hundred and twenty years.

One Churchgoer, Cecilia Giménez, figured she could try to renovate it. The problem was she possesses none of the skills required to do so.

“The priest was aware … he knew,” she exclaimed. “Of course I did it because I was told to do it …“

When asked by a television journalist if she was hiding during her failed attempt at restoring the picture, Giménez responded: “No, everybody that came into the church saw me. I never tried to hide”.

Today, Teresa García, the artist’s granddaughter, surveilled the damage, and found it difficult to fully absorb what has happened to her family’s treasured point of pride.

“Before she had only touched the robe, but the problem came when she started on the head,” Garcia said. “Clearly she has destroyed the painting”

The mutation has inspired other computer graphic artists online to remix the fresco’s portrait with faces of icons spanning from the guy from Sparta, to Michael Jackson, to the Pink Panther, and even as pictured above by Laughzilla, The Scream by Edvard Munch.

“I wanted to express how such a destruction of art might be reacted to by onlookers who had loved the original work” Laughzilla said. “It seems the fantastic Mr. Munch already beat us all to it. So I borrowed one element of his works to illustrate the shock and horror that Martinez’s fans felt when they saw the result of the annihilation of the old fresco.”

Related: Christ Fresco ruined by amateur restorer in Spain – euronews