Cecilia Giménez, painter behind viral ‘Ecce Homo’ restoration, dies at 94

Cecilia Giménez Zueco, the painter who went viral for an attempted restoration of a historic fresco depicting the biblical Jesus in a small town in Spain, has died at 94.

Her death was announced in a news release Tuesday from the Borja City Council, which praised Giménez as a “wonderful person” and mourned her death as an “irreparable loss.”

Giménez made international news in August 2012 after she attempted to restore the fresco painted by Elías García Martínez titled “Ecce Homo” with permission from a local priest at the Santuario de la Misericordia in Borja.

The finished painting, far from a conventional restoration, transformed the fresco into one of the most widely recognized images of the internet era.

News of the restoration first appeared on the website of the Centro de Estudios Borjanos, a local cultural research institute in Borja, which later caught the attention of a local newspaper before it spread through international media.

When photographs of the altered fresco began circulating, town officials initially suspected vandalism and publicly questioned how the damage had occurred, before it emerged that the repainting had been authorized by the parish.

But the town, and the internet, quickly embraced the quirky restoration, which was eventually placed behind protective glass. The town also introduced a small admission fee at the church.

Since then, the painting has been dubbed the “Ecce Homo de Borja” and has become a driver of tourism that has boosted the town’s economy. Tens of thousands of people visited the church to see it in the first year alone, The Guardian reported at the time.

Souvenirs and licensed merchandise featuring the image were also sold, and Cecilia Giménez eventually received a share of proceeds from authorized uses. Money raised from the ticket sales and souvenirs benefits a local charity for the elderly.

“The world came to know her through this charming anecdote,” Borja officials said in the news release.

“But we all already knew what a wonderful person she was, and we will always remember her as a kind woman and a great lover of the Santuario de la Misericordia, where she spent long periods of time with her family.”