The Ultimate Botched Art Restoration

Art restoration is a unique profession. It is one of those crafts where a great deal of knowledge, insightfulness, skill, and comprehensiveness is required, apart from aiming for nothing short of perfection. That’s no easy feat to accomplish. Restoring a painting, structure, or statue requires in-depth knowledge of various art techniques, architecture, chemistry, and many other subjects.

No matter how extensive and taxing the process of art restoration is when the job is done well and with extreme care, it gains appreciation from everyone. But, when the effort is lackluster, terrible, and unapologetically halfhearted, it receives backlash. The public is none the wiser and can easily differentiate if art was restored by a professional or an unqualified individual. Such botched art restoration efforts become hot selling memes. We know you are eager to check out some of the worst art restoration efforts in art history. So here are some catastrophic restorative efforts that made a mockery of the art world’s greatest masterpieces.

Following its restoration in 2020, a sculpture in Palencia, Spain, is attracting global attention. The sculpture, which used to have human-like characteristics, has been transformed into a cartoon figure. After Antonio Capel shared a photo of the sculpture, which is part of an elaborate office building’s exterior, on Facebook, it went viral.

 What was once a perfectly constructed, smiling woman’s face now seems to be an unstructured oval with melty, malformed indents for eyes, a bump for a nose, and an oddly puckered set of lips, as seen in the images. “[It] looks like a cartoon character,” Capel described the 1923 monument. According to the Spanish Professional Association of Restorers and Conservators on Twitter, the job was not done by a professional and should not be called a restoration.

No one could have imagined St. Anne (the mother of Mary) in a color like magenta and the young Jesus wearing a shade like celery green, that too, in a 15th-century sculpture? Well, don’t scratch your head over who did this horrendous job. It was Maria Luisa Menéndez. Ms. Menéndez was a regular visitor to the church and the owner of a tobacco shop. But, her primary claim to fame, or whatever this could be called, was giving these statues located in Asturias, Spain, an entirely different appearance.

Menéndez, who admitted that she is not a trained painter, painted the statues in the colors that she felt were appropriate. Extra features of what looks to be lipstick and eyeliner on the figures are added with garish neons. The art and history community slammed it, as they do with most bizarre restoration “projects.” Menéndez, on the other hand, is unwavering in her admiration for her work. “The neighbors liked it,” she said. “Ask around and you’ll see.”

Surprisingly, the most infamous art restoration effort in the world is also, strangely, the most appreciated. It all began with a good-hearted attempt to conserve a fading fresco created by Elias Garcia Martinez in the 1930s, as with other restoration projects. It is dubbed the most notorious and oddly iconic restoration efforts in Christian art history.

Cecilia Giménez, a local parishioner, observed the fresco and decided to fix it in order to preserve the beautiful church where she was married. So, she started working on it with no professional restoration training. She painted it with large blobs of color, giving it the globby appearance it presently has. The odd-looking Jesus’ features are sometimes compared to those of a monkey. However, more than 10,000 individuals signed a petition to keep the church’s monkey-like face. “Behold the Monkey,” “Beast Jesus,” “Monkey Jesus,” and “Potato Man,” are some of the pseudonyms associated with this fresco.

A statue of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus was damaged, and the infant’s head was broken off. Heather Wise, an artist, volunteered her time to create the new head. She set to work, and despite having plenty of photos to work with, the head she produced was nothing like the original sculpture.

 More than that, it didn’t appear to be human. What was once a lovely statue turned into a terrifying illustration of what not to do when repairing damaged sculpture. The head has a cartoonish look and is made of clay, and therefore, it doesn’t go with the statue. Thankfully, the story became viral, and the thief returned the original head, so Wise’s “repair” was swiftly removed to enable a proper restoration.

After a messed up repair effort, a giant walnut wood figurine of St. George, a heroic saint and soldier, better known as a dragon slayer, immediately became a laughingstock. The saint’s statue was erected in the sixteenth century. It is located in Navarre, Spain. When the authorities felt that the statue needed restoration. Rather than employing a professional restorer, the church and community left the project to some novice art instructor, who turned it into a caricature straight out of a cartoon series from the 1940s.

The local government’s historic heritage agency undertook attempts to repair the damage as a result of the controversy it faced. The new project cost around €33,000, which almost double the expected costs if they had hired an expert early on. The event still remains a lesson to entrust cultural preservation to field professionals.

This Catholic painting is present in Spain. As evident, it is ruined but what you may not know is that it was botched not once but twice because of unskilled brushstrokes. The painting is a replica of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s 1678 painting The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables.

For €1,200, an art admirer who owned this fantastic replica of the Baroque painting hired a furniture artist to clean it up. But, much to his astonishment, the painting got horribly altered and Mary’s appearance was nowhere to be found. They tried to repair the damage, but it had failed just as badly, if not worse. Certain damages are irreparable and this very fact concerned conservationists and art restorers. Professor Fernando Carrera told in an interview with The Guardian, “Paradoxically, it shows just how important professional restorers are.”

In 2018, a wooden statue of San Antonio de Padua in Soledad, Colombia, needed to be restored because the color had faded significantly. Because the statue was sculpted in the 17th century, it had seen considerable wear and tear by the time the church was able to hire an artist to restore it. There’s a distinction between an artist and a professional restoration specialist.

The artist’s efforts did restore the statue’s vibrancy, but not in a way that the parishioners appreciated. The statue now appears to be wearing makeup. As one parishioner put it, “He is no longer the same patron that I have prayed to for the last 12 years, they applied eye shadow, blush and even gloss on his lips, he looks effeminate.”

The ravages of time have claimed several parts of the Great Wall and the Mongols. Despite this, China has invested a significant amount of time and money in maintaining various areas for the sake of development and tourism. In 2016, one of the most magnificent portions of the wall got a major “fail” when it came to maintenance attempts. The objective of the repair was to preserve the wall from collapsing while maintaining its immaculate appearance. As a result, the situation became a shamble.

None of the original stone blocks were used to rebuild the 780-meter section of the wall, and it was instead covered in concrete. The lengthy piece of the wall no longer has the same appearance as it did before. Instead, it appears to be nothing more than a slightly raised walkway with no historical significance.

In 2010, these statues of Mars and Venus (circa 175 AD) were installed by workers right in front of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s residence. Can you believe that someone stole the body parts of these famous statues? Prime minister Berlusconi was devastated to see the sorry state of these statues, and we certainly agree with his reaction. Anyone in his place would have been furious.

So, to compensate for the loss, the Italian PM ordered the restoration of his beloved artwork. The effort wasn’t all that bad as we have seen much worse restorations so far. But, PM’s impulse didn’t go down well with art critics. They believe that remodeling priceless monuments the way one pleases is similar to vandalism as no one would know how the figures actually looked. Due to strong resentment from the critics, the PM ordered Mars and Venus statues to be returned to their previous state.

Arguably, this one is the most extensive and somewhat attention-grabbing restoration work to have surfaced during the twentieth century. Although it received public acceptance, the restoration of frescoes in the Sistine Chapel was bashed by most art critics. They regarded it as an unsuccessful attempt to restore sacred art.

But why? Doesn’t the fresco resemble the original? Well, there is a slight difference, we have to admit. So, we cannot blame the critics for pointing out this mistake. However, you would be surprised to know that this wasn’t the fault of the restoration artists. When the masters cleaned the soot, they mistakenly touched the top layer of the frescoes. Unfortunately, the corrections done by Michelangelo himself were badly affected, and some characters lost their eyes.

Beard Of Tutankhamen’s Death Mask is probably one of the world’s most stunning and well-known artifacts. The mask was discovered in the young pharaoh’s tomb in 1925, and it is a stunning example of ancient craftsmanship. It was 3,248 years old when it was discovered, yet it was in perfect shape. Unfortunately, the beard broke off in 2014, and the mask had to be restored in order to be preserved.

This plaited beard you see in the original photo weighed around 5.5 lbs or 2.5 kgs. Hence, reattaching it wasn’t an easy task. Sadly, the museum workers hurriedly glued it to the mask in the most unprofessional manner imaginable. The repair caused further damage, and the individuals involved were charged with carelessness and professional standards violations as a result of the occurrence. Where they attempted to remove built-up adhesive, their “work” created severe scratches and gouges. Then in 2015, a team of experts from Germany was roped in to work on this legendary mark. They restored the beard properly.

Restorers were accused of censoring the phalluses on the Tree of Fertility in Tuscany, Italy. The Tree of Fertility, one of Italy’s most unusual pieces of art, was discovered in 2000 and is famed for its portrayal of many phalluses—or was, until a 2011 cleaning. The restorers were accused of censoring the ancient artwork by removing around 25 hanging penis fruits from previously loaded branches. “The operation was carried out with the greatest of care.”

“The restoration in no way radically modified the original features,” Mario Scalini, the local province’s head of history and arts, claimed to the Telegraph, explaining that repairing the badly damaged fresco necessitated the removal of salt and calcium deposits. A local authority requested an investigation, but the harm had already been done. Recent pictures, thankfully, appear to show at least a few remaining penises.

Mosaics at the Hatay Archaeology Museum in Turkey. Mehmet Daşkapan, a local craftsman, was the first to object to restoration work on mosaics. These mosaics dated back to the 2nd to the 6th century and were situated at the Hatay Archaeology Museum in Antakya, Turkey. The photographs were shocking, saying the least, with delicate bodies deformed and tiny details gone.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism disputed an issue, stating that the photos were taken during the early stages of the restoration. They tried to do damage control by claiming they would be restored to their former glory very soon. Celal Küçük, a restorer, justified his work as well, but the pictures speak for themselves. What do you have to say about it?

We have ruined art restoration examples, and then we have this- the Castle of Matrera. This restorative effort created a whole new category of worse restoration in art history. The castle was constructed in the 9th century to protect Iptuci, and it had been restored by the 13th century, though it had fallen into disrepair in the following years

The castle was still standing in 2010, but just by a hair’s breadth. A repair effort was begun since just a few walls were intact, and the weather had destroyed the remaining ruins. He had a goal to “recover the volume, texture, and tonality that the tower would originally have had. The essence of the project is not intended to be, therefore, an image of the future, but rather a reflection of its own past, its own origin.” The outcome infuriated the residents, who regarded the historic castle as utterly destroyed.

The Santa Cruz da Barra Chapel has a 19th-century wooden statue of Santa Barbara that needed to be restored by 2012. The paint had faded with time, so conservators from Rio’s Museu Histórico do Exército were called in to restore it. They spent six months painstakingly detailing the statue in order to restore it to its former grandeur, but the final result fell significantly short of the chapel’s expectations. The restorers removed four layers of paint and restored them with an unusual hue that has been compared to Barbie rather than Santa Barbara.

The statue was given a makeover that can only be characterized as a disaster. The skin was painted white and given an excess of eyeliner. The statue looked out of place in a chapel because of its garishly colored robes.

The Genoese built the Ocakli Ada Castle in Sile, Turkey, as a watchtower over 2,000 years ago. The Ottoman Empire finally captured the fortress in 1396, and it has since been repaired and restored twice. Following significant modifications, the most recent restoration attempt was finished in 2015, although it looked completely different.

The stones that had been used to create the castle millennia before vanished, and in their stead stood a sleek, gleaming new structure. The new castle may resemble the tower it once was (if it had been built with modern tools 2,000 years ago), but it is no longer the tower it once was. According to the people on the Internet, it looks a lot like Spongebob Squarepants. After this restoration was revealed to the public, strong resentment surfaced across the web. The story went viral, and the municipality had to come forward to defend the project. Professor Kemal Kutgun Eyupgiller, the project advisor, defended it in these words- “What needs to be criticized here is the neglect that the castle suffered since the 19th Century.”

The 270-year-old Yunjie temple in Chaoyang, China, initially had some exquisite Qing Dynasty paintings, but they had mainly faded away over time. The figurines were all that remained, but the majority of the colors had gone away. Instead of restoring the original pictures, the restorer appears to have painted a new image over the fading one.

The new fresco has a cartoonish look, and it’s brightly colored, like something from a Disney film. The real paintings were destroyed, and the replicas served as a sad reminder of what had been lost. The unlawful renovation resulted in the dismissal of a temple official and the director of the cultural heritage monitoring team in Chaoyang. However, the damage was already done as there was no way to restore the original frescoes.

A guide first discovered the issue with the Buddha statue at the Gansu province’s ang, China. The guide couldn’t help but notice the awkward paint job done on the 1,000-year-old Song Dynasty Buddha statue located in Anyone township, China. The restoration effort was anything but appropriate or even mature. The amateurish artists were local villagers who tried to bring the statue’s lost glory in 1995.

The ghastly done job came to public notice in 2018 after Xu Xin shared the sculpture’s present state on Weibo. Naturally, the Anyue county government was quick to blame the well-meaning locals for their lack of knowledge and respect for the ancient relic. As a result of this catastrophic paint job, the Administration of Cultural Heritage improved the protection and management of relics. No other repair of this sort has been conducted so far since this incident.

Though this entire article is about botched art restorations, we don’t want to overlook the fact that there are many cases where the restoration effort was considered successful. So many works of art gurus of the past eras have survived the test of time and are still standing tall for so long. In this regard, we cannot ignore the painstaking efforts of their restorers.

One such example of the successful preservation of an ancient relic is this sculpture you see in the photos. It is one of the angles on St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. This monument was built for the central portion of the sculpture, and the artwork was made with travertine stone. The monument was affected by some typical atmospheric pollutants present in the environment, particularly sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and organic particulate. However, it was successfully restored to its previous shape.

The government of Egypt came under fire back in 2014 due to this particular restoration project. The Pyramid of Djoser is the country’s oldest pyramid built for the Old Kingdom pharaoh Djoser. Although, the government officials denied the allegations and kept maintaining that there wasn’t anything wrong with the monument. However, art critics were adamant that the restoration job was poorly carried out and damaged the façade of the historic monument.

The criticism drew the attention of the UNESCO World Heritage Center, and a formal investigation was launched to determine how far the government’s stance was true. Everything seems to have worked out in the end since a British engineering team from Cintec was tasked to save the stepping stone building of the world-renowned Egyptian monument from getting destroyed. 

You can realize the extent of an artwork’s devastative restoration when something belonging to a legendary artist like Leonardo da Vinci is done and dusted. In 2001, a well-known da Vinci expert, Carlo Pedretti, discovered a lost drawing from the late maestro in Stefano Della Bella’s collection. It is a sketch titled Orpheus Being Attacked by the Furies. 

This sketch from Leo da Vinci is believed to be part of the Codex Atlanticus. It was compiled by the sculptor Pompeo Leoni, and the artworks were collected from different notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. Pedretti later revealed that this historic relic was virtually destroyed by a team of colossally ill-informed team of restorers as they treated it with a mix of alcohol and water. They didn’t test the ink for solubility, due to which the fragile sketch vanished. 

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was a revolutionary and one of the most revered leaders of the Russian SFSR. He is known by the nom de plume Vladimir Lenin. In 1991, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, most of his statues in the region were destroyed without their creator’s consent. However, Lenin’s statues are still present and preserved in many former Soviet Republics, such as Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. One of these statues is located in Krasnodar.

The statue you see in the picture is the oldest statue of Vladimir Lenin that is still erected. However, it is hard to tell how far it resemble the great leader. The original statue was built in 1921, one year after the Soviet leader’s death, by sculptor K. Dietrich in the park on the street Vishnyakova. There is no info regarding who performed this ghastly Putin-like restoration of the statue, but, certainly, it doesn’t resemble Vladimir Lenin anymore.