What do you think of this fact?
Good intentions don’t always lead to good results. But sometimes they still pay off. The story of the “Ecce Homo” in Borja proves it.
Touching up a painting
In a small church in Borja in northeastern Spain hung a wall painting of Jesus. It had been painted by the artist Elías García Martínez. Over the years, the picture had faded and the paint was flaking off.
In 2012, Cecilia Giménez, an 82-year-old local woman at the time, decided to fix it. She wasn’t a trained restorer. Afterwards, the result barely resembled the original.
From mistake to attraction
Instead of a dignified face of Jesus, a blurry, roundish figure now looked down from the wall. Photos of it spread across the internet at lightning speed, and the restoration became one of the best-known memes of its time.
For Borja, that had an unexpected effect. According to the art magazine Artnet, about 150,000 tourists came to the small town over the following years to see the painting for themselves. Photos and parodies of it can still be found online.
According to the Canadian broadcaster CBC, the painting in the Santuario de Misericordia church was drawing crowds of tourists soon after the incident.
Bonus fact: According to Artnet, Cecilia Giménez later received a share of the merchandising revenue. She gave much of it to charity.
What started as an embarrassing mishap became a stroke of luck for an entire town. Cecilia Giménez became famous without meaning to.
So if you ever accidentally ruin a painting, take comfort. With a bit of luck, it might become a tourist attraction.