Statue of San Jorge / paint

In June 2018, a well-intentioned priest made an unauthorized attempt to restore this 16th-century polychrome sculpture of Saint George, which is housed in the Church of St. Michael in Estella, Spain.

The town’s mayor said the priest decided to renovate the carving without consulting or informing the city council, “something he should have done by law."Rather than professional restoration artists, the priest hired "an academy of crafts” to perform the task. As a result, the statue, which had turned a dark brown with age, featured a pink-faced St. George wearing a flashy red and gray armor suit. 

“I do not doubt the good intentions of both the pastor and the person in charge of desecrating this work of art through inappropriate techniques, but the negligence of both is very serious and can not be excused by good intentions alone.”

Many have compared this incident to 2012′s botched “update” of Elias Garcia Martinez’s “Ecce Homo (Behold the Man),” which found an elderly parishioner taking restoration efforts into her own hands.