Calls for art regulation after latest Spanish masterpiece is disfigured by botched repair
A PAINTING by a renowned Baroque artist is the latest in a long line of famous artworks to fall victim to a botched restoration in Spain, prompting calls for effective regulation to stop amateur repairers from wreaking havoc.
Eight years after an octogenarian amateur painter’s misguided decision to touch up a religious painting in the Spanish town of Borja became a global sensation known as “Monkey Christ”, a copy of Immaculate Conception by the Baroque artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo has suffered similar disfigurement.
A private collector in Valencia contracted a furniture restorer to clean the Murillo for 1,200 euros (£1,090), and was horrified by the result, which rendered the Virgin Mary’s once delicate face an unrecognisable smear, remarkably similar to the infantile monkey-like version of the Ecce Homo fresco left on the church wall in Borja.
The collector has reportedly now resorted to a genuine expert art restorer in a bid to bring back the Baroque beauty of the painting.
“Sadly, this kind of thing happens much more often than people think,” said María Borja, the representative of Spain’s professional conservator and restorers’ association (ACRE) in the Valencia region.
“This standard of work is happening every day and most cases do not get in the press,” Ms Borja told the news agency Europa Press, adding that the damage done by such “unprofessional interventions” is often irreversible.
Ms Borja said that ACRE was demanding a properly regulated approach to art conservation, under which owners of important or historical works must register their property with the administration as a work of interest, which only registered conservation professionals would be allowed to restore.