This repaired Spanish sculpture has been slammed as “cartoon-like” and compared to the botched Ecce Homo fresco that was famously touched up by a cleaning lady eight years ago.
The restored statue was criticised by painter Antonio Guzman on social media after it was unveiled in the city centre of Palencia in the northern Spanish region of Castile and Leon.
The building was commissioned by Alejandro Najera, president of the Catholic-Agrarian Federation, in 1919 under the direction of architect Jacobo Romero, according to the newspaper El Norte de Castilla.
The protected building was officially opened in 1923 and has become one of the most emblematic buildings on the city’s High Street, currently serving as a branch of the bank Unicaja.
The other part of the relief in the building 
The failed restoration of the relief
Local artist Guzman shared before-after snaps of the renovated sculpture on Facebook alongside the message: “It looks like a cartoon.”
He also compared it to the controversial Ecce Homo Jesus fresco in Borja in Spain that was ‘restored’ by untrained artist Cecilia Gimenez in 2012.
Initially painted around 1930 by the Spanish painter Elias Garcia Martinez, the altered fresco was widely slammed for making Jesus look like a monkey.
Netizens were also less than impressed with the latest renovated statue. Facebook user ‘Almudena Gonzalez’ said: “It makes me want to cry, it is terrible. And to think of all the great artists we have.”
Netizen ‘Aguas De Abril’ commented: “My granddaughter could do better with playdough.”
‘Conchi Aguado’ wrote: “It looks like sand sculptures kids do on the beach.”
The building owners have yet to comment on the criticism.
Before the restoration 
The failed restoration of the relief
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Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub-Editor: Joana Mihajlovska, Agency: Newsflash
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