This story cracked me up when I read it yesterday. A church in Spain – The Sanctuary of Mercy Church – has a semi-famous painting of Christ (shown here on the left). It has recently become damaged by damp. It’s not valuable, but as it’s over 100 years old it has some value for the locals and the Christian World in general.
The church had apparently (from the story I read yesterday) recently got funding to have it professionally restored.
But an old lady – in her 80s – got there before the restorers and fixed it herself (see image on the right). Church officials didn’t realise what she was doing until it was too late.
The old lady was obviously an early Gary Numan fan, and rumour has it that her next project will involve the Mona Lisa (see below).
Seriously (well, sort of), I’m sure the old lady in question had the best of intentions when she set to work – and you have to wonder at security (the story I read yesterday reported that there were guards at the church). But I would imagine that they don’t have a lot of problems with octogenarian graffiti artists under normal circumstances, so this one got in under the radar.
You have to remember that they take religion far more seriously in Spain, and that’s often even more true of the older people, so you can understand why she tried to do what she did.
The only thing you stumble over is the quality.
In fact, the original was very modern, whereas the amateur’s version looks mediaeval.