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

Cecilia Giménez, from the town of Borja in northern Spain, rose to prominence 13 years ago after she attempted to repaint a 100-year-old fresco known as Ecce Homo located in her parish church.

Giménez's handiwork spread across the internet and was dubbed "Potato Jesus", largely due to the resulting likeness of Christ's head bearing a resemblance to a hairy monkey.

Local Confirmation and Homage

The nonagenarian's passing was announced by Borja's mayor, Eduardo Arilla, in a social media post, where he acknowledged her as a "passionate lover of painting from a young age".

"Descansa en paz Cecilia, we will always remember you," Arilla wrote.

Arilla also paid tribute to Giménez's "famous restoration of Ecce Homo" in the summer of 2012, which "because of the deteriorated condition it presented, Cecilia, with the best intentions, chose to repaint the work over".

The Painting's History and the Fateful Act

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

In 2012, Giménez, then 81, stated that parishioners had "traditionally fixed everything here", and that she had been given the go-ahead from the parish priest to proceed.

She also noted that anybody who came into the church would have seen she was applying paint to the original image.

An Unexpected Economic Lifeline

The aftermath of the repaint job led to the creation of the "Ecce Mono" internet phenomenon and transformed the previously sleepy town of Borja quickly become a significant visitor attraction.

The town, which had previously seen only 5,000 tourists per year, received over 40,000 tourists by 2013, and managed to raise more than €50,000 for charity from the attention.

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

Legacy and Local Support

After recovering from the initial backlash, with support from the townspeople and others around the world, Giménez went on to stage an art exhibition featuring twenty-eight of her own works.

She was praised by the mayor for her generosity and years of faithful service to the parish.

Ultimately, what began as a sincere but unsuccessful art repair forged an unlikely piece of pop culture and provided unprecedented tourist revenue to a small Spanish town.