The Ecce Homo (Latin: "Behold the Man") in the Sanctuary of Mercy church (Santuario de Misericordia) in Borja, Spain, is a fresco painted circa 1930 by the Spanish painter Elías García Martínez that depicts Jesus crowned with thorns. Both the subject and style were typical of traditional Catholic art.
While press accounts agree that the original painting was artistically unremarkable, its current fame derives from a partial attempt in 2012 to restore the fresco by Cecilia Giménez, then an 81-year-old untrained amateur artist and resident of Borja. Her restoration became at first a local and then international sensation. The intervention transformed the painting and was described as being similar to a monkey, and for this reason it is sometimes referred to as Ecce Mono (roughly Behold the Monkey, "mono" being Spanish for "monkey") or Monkey Christ. The work, which became an educational and tourist attraction, has not been re-restored.
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Original mural
The artist, a professor at the School of Art of Zaragoza, donated the painting to the village where he used to spend his holidays, painting it directly on the wall of the church in about 1930. He commented that "this is the result of two hours of devotion to the Virgin of Mercy". His descendants still live in Zaragoza and were aware that the painting had deteriorated seriously; his granddaughter had made a donation toward its restoration shortly before they discovered that the work had been radically altered in an incompetent attempt to restore it.