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The elderly woman from Spain who achieved global fame for her poorly executed restoration attempt on a valuable Jesus Christ fresco has passed away at the age of 94.

The woman, from the town of Borja in northern Spain, rose to prominence 13 years ago after she undertook to restore a century-old fresco known as Ecce Homo housed within her parish church.

Giménez's handiwork quickly went viral and was dubbed "Potato Jesus", because the altered likeness of Christ's head bearing a resemblance to a hairy monkey.

Local Announcement and Tribute

The 94-year-old's death was announced by Borja's mayor, Eduardo Arilla, in a social media post, where he acknowledged her as a "great enthusiast of painting from a young age".

"Descansa en paz Cecilia, your memory will live on with us," the mayor posted.

Arilla also paid tribute to Giménez's "now-legendary restoration of Ecce Homo" in the summer of 2012, which "due to the deteriorated condition it presented, Cecilia, with the best intentions, chose to apply new paint over the original".

The Painting's Background and the Fateful Intervention

The Ecce Homo ("Behold the Man" in Latin) by nineteenth-century painter Elias Garcia Martinez had resided for over a century in the Sanctuary of Mercy Church near Zaragoza.

At the time, Giménez, then 81, explained that parishioners had "always repaired everything here", and that she had been given the go-ahead from the local priest to proceed.

She also noted that anybody who came into the Church would have seen she was applying paint to the existing artwork.

A Surprising Economic Lifeline

The impact of the restoration spawned the "Ecce Mono" internet phenomenon and transformed the previously sleepy town of Borja quickly become a significant tourist destination.

The municipality, which had previously seen only five thousand visitors per year, received over 40,000 tourists by 2013, and generated over €50,000 for charity from the interest.

Currently, local authorities estimate that between 15,000 and 20,000 tourists travel to Borja each year to view the famous portrait, which is now protected by a pane of glass.

Legacy and Local Admiration

Following the initial backlash, with support from local residents and others around the world, Giménez went on to stage an art exhibition featuring twenty-eight of her own paintings.

She was commended by Borja's mayor for her generosity and decades of dedication to the church.

In the end, what began as a sincere but unsuccessful act of restoration forged an unlikely cultural icon and provided remarkable attention and resources to a small Spanish town.