A restoration on the wooden sculpture of Saint George in San Miguel Church in Spain has provoked outrage. The historic sculpture has undergone a 'frightening' transformation after it was botched by a local arts and crafts teacher.

The original sculpture

The sculpture after restoration

The ‘new’ sculpture has cartoonish features with its garish pink face, doe eyes and flashy red armour. According to local reports, the church hired a local arts and crafts teacher to have it cleaned, without any intention of fully restoring the 500-year-old sculpture.

The botched restoration

The tragedy in the northern town of Estella was caused by the use of plaster and the wrong kind of paint. It is possible that the original layers of paint have been lost. Scraping and sanding, which are no longer used nowadays in restoration, had damaged the texture and colours of the sculpture. The art restoration process should have been done by experts, especially for historic sculptures.

The Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) fresco of Jesus Christ: the original one (left); after restoration (right)

This terrifying restoration job has reminded many of the infamous attempt of restoring the Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) fresco of Jesus Christ in 2012. The painting was created in 1930 by Elías García Martínez in the small village of Borja, Spain. By 2016, more than 160,000 visitors have flocked to the church to see the 'restored' painting that is compared to a ‘blurry potato’ and a monkey. The botched sculpture of Saint George has already drew thousands more visitors to the small town.