About

Palencia Statue Restoration Fail refers to a botched restoration of a statue depicting a smiling woman on a building in Palencia, Spain. The restoration completely obscured the woman's features and replaced them with mismatched eyes and a clay-like face. The discovered botch drew comparisons to other restoration fails such as Potato Jesus and The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables restoration.

Origin

On November 7th, 2020, Facebook user Antonio Carpel Artista pointed out the botched restoration of a statue on a 20th-century building in Palencia, Spain (original: shown below, left; restoration: right).^[1]

Spread

The botch was amplified by news publications including The Guardian^[2] and Art News.^[3] Art News' November 11th, 2020 tweet^[4] about the botched restoration (shown below, left) captured the attention of Twitter, gaining over 1,200 retweets and 4,100 likes. Twitter users quickly began making jokes about the incident, comparing it to Potato Jesus and other recent botched restorations. User @CestLaBri^[5] posted a Choose Your Fighter parody with numerous botched restorations, gaining over 4,300 retweets and 11,000 likes (shown below, right).

Other users made How It Started / How It's Going jokes with the piece. User @bulletfarmer^[6] posted the joke with the images, gaining over 20 retweets and 380 likes (shown below, left). User @OfficialCWH^[7] posted a "Me In 2020" meme with the restoration, gaining over 100 retweets and 900 likes (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References