Spanish Fresco Botched Restoration Brings Town Game---Woman who botched restoration of Spanish fresco now wants: Discount airline Ryanair is offering flights for 12 Euro ($15) to visit the Spanish town that’s home to the infamous botched restoration of a painting of Jesus Christ, while a a local winery is labelling bottles of red with the furry face found on the “restored” fresco.
The shrine where the work of 81-year-old Cecilia Gimenez hangs has also started charging admission to see the scroll, with an estimated 4,000 visitors in the last month, the local Heraldo de Aragon reports.
Now, Gimenez is talking to lawyers about copyrighting the image, according to the Spanish newspaper El Correo.
The mayor of Borja, Francisco Miguel Arilla, told the newspaper he will meet with the Gimenez family to talk about why they have put the case in the hands of lawyers.
Borja City Council itself in late August trademarked the image “in all its forms,” the Heraldo reported, “to be sure there are no other people who can register and misuse the painting.”
This was after T-shirts appeared online and a Madrid pastry shop starting making crepes with the image.
Next week, Arilla is scheduled to meet the restorers the town hired to see if the original work, done in the early 20th century by a local artist, could be repaired. At the same time, an international movement has called on Borja to keep Gimenez’s brushstrokes the way they are.
The sanctuary on Saturday put a 1 Euro ($1.25) admission fee on viewing the crude restoration, the Heraldo reported.
The number of visitors has increased dramatically, said sanctuary director José María Aznar.
Charging admission angered Gimenez and her family and forced them to turn to a lawyer, the Heraldo reported.
Ryanair announced in early September that it would offer the special fare from some European cities to see the “Ecce Homo”-style portrait of Jesus Christ.
“The town of Borja shows the tourist potential of viral stories,” Ryanair Spanish marketing director Luis Fernandez-Mellado said in announcing the fares.
The shrine where the work of 81-year-old Cecilia Gimenez hangs has also started charging admission to see the scroll, with an estimated 4,000 visitors in the last month, the local Heraldo de Aragon reports.
Now, Gimenez is talking to lawyers about copyrighting the image, according to the Spanish newspaper El Correo.
The mayor of Borja, Francisco Miguel Arilla, told the newspaper he will meet with the Gimenez family to talk about why they have put the case in the hands of lawyers.
Borja City Council itself in late August trademarked the image “in all its forms,” the Heraldo reported, “to be sure there are no other people who can register and misuse the painting.”
This was after T-shirts appeared online and a Madrid pastry shop starting making crepes with the image.
Next week, Arilla is scheduled to meet the restorers the town hired to see if the original work, done in the early 20th century by a local artist, could be repaired. At the same time, an international movement has called on Borja to keep Gimenez’s brushstrokes the way they are.
The sanctuary on Saturday put a 1 Euro ($1.25) admission fee on viewing the crude restoration, the Heraldo reported.
The number of visitors has increased dramatically, said sanctuary director José María Aznar.
Charging admission angered Gimenez and her family and forced them to turn to a lawyer, the Heraldo reported.
Ryanair announced in early September that it would offer the special fare from some European cities to see the “Ecce Homo”-style portrait of Jesus Christ.
“The town of Borja shows the tourist potential of viral stories,” Ryanair Spanish marketing director Luis Fernandez-Mellado said in announcing the fares.
