We wrote before about Spanish art restorations that went quite wrong. 'Restorers' are increasingly taking matters into their own hands, creating bizarre images that have very little to do with the original. More than a year later, two more works of art fell victim to the same treatment.
Last summer, the image of Mary in The Immaculate Conception (1660-65) by the Spanish artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo was given a makeover. While Murillo's original version hangs safely in the Prado Museum in Madrid, this copy – strongly believed to have also been painted by Murillo – came out of a cleaning session particularly unfavorably. In both restoration attempts, Mary's rosy, girlish face was painted over beyond recognition.
A few months later, a restored facade of a 1919 building was unveiled in the northern Spanish city of Palencia. A young female figure in particular stood out, who used to look down on the crowd in a friendly way. However, after the restoration, in which her jawline completely disappeared and her right eye ended up on the side of her face, she looks more like a Cubist painting. Bystanders described her new face as "cartoonesque."
Meanwhile, Spanish restorers have requested that laws for the restoration of art be tightened in order to protect Spain's cultural heritage.