Many paintings are destroyed. There are various reasons why paintings are destroyed. For example, it may be because it is old, someone intentionally ruined it, not preserved well, or even damaged by incorrect restoration. I'm going to talk about the case where the painting was destroyed because it was restored incorrectly. People work hard to restore damaged paintings to their original state, because it is a really important task. This is because if it is incorrectly restored, the original appearance of the work will never be seen again. In 15th century Europe, in order to restore a painting, a person had to wipe and overlay the surface of it. Starting from the 18th century, being an art restorer was recognized as a formal profession. Today, methods of restoring art are different depending on the type of painting (e.g. oil, acrylic, watercolor, etc.). However, restorers usually start by wiping off any grime or dust on the painting. Then, they fill the damaged colors with paint and repair the damaged canvas. In order to restore a painting so that it looks like the original painting, professional skills are required. However, if people without professional skills try to restore, then it will be damaged, and there are many cases of that. The case I'm going to introduce today is “Ecce homo”.

Ecce Homo is one of the most famous paintings that are incorrectly restored. The Ecce Homo was painted on the wall of Sanctuary of Mercy church in the Spanish town of Borja, circa 1930. This painting depicts Jesus Christ looking up at the sky. But this painting gradually began to be damaged because it was not well managed for about 100 years. There are several rips, and the color was changed from the original one due to moisture and air pollution. But in August 2012, one person said that she would restore it. She is Cecilia Giméenz, an 81-year-old woman who was an amateur painter in the village. She was licensed to do the restoration work with the permission of the church. So she then began k and completed it in a day. But she didn’t have the professional skills. So after she restored it, the painting became a completely different painting. So it is no longer possible to restore the painting to its original state; it was changed to the extent that it makes everyone think that it was better before restoring the painting. Since then, some people have been calling this painting by a different name. The restored appearance of the painting is similar to a monkey, so it is sometimes called the monkey Christ or Ecce hono, not Ecce homo. Because this painting looks like a monkey and hono means monkey in Spanish.

When this painting was first drawn, it did not receive much attention. Because it was not as special compared to the appearance of the splendid cathedral. But after this painting was incorrectly restored, rumors spread quickly, and there were many criticisms against the woman who restored it. Many people looked for this painting, and it became more famous not only in Spain but also around the world. So the number of tourists increased. As many people were visiting to see this painting, the cathedral received an entrance fee to restore the painting again. This had a good influence on this village and saved a lot of money. But the descendants of the original author who painted this painting were outraged that the painting was damaged and asked to be restored again. But there was one problem. Because if you restore this painting back to its original form, the people who visit this cathedral will gradually disappear and then the profits will gradually decrease. If that happens, the village that got better after receiving the entrance fee to the cathedral can go back to poverty.

The controversy is still going on. It is divided into two sides: whether the old woman who tried to restore the painting should be punished or, since she did not have any bad intentions, it is not her fault. This controversy will not end.