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

Cecilia Giménez, from the town of Borja in northeast Spain, became a global sensation 13 years ago after she attempted to restore a 100-year-old fresco titled Ecce Homo located in her parish church.

Giménez's restoration effort quickly went viral and earned the moniker "Monkey Christ", because the resulting depiction of Christ's head looking somewhat like a hairy monkey.

Local Announcement and Homage

The 94-year-old's death was announced by the town's mayor, Eduardo Arilla, via an online statement, where he described her as a "great enthusiast of painting from a very early age".

"Rest in peace Cecilia, we will always remember you," the mayor posted.

Arilla further referenced Giménez's "famous restoration of Ecce Homo" in August 2012, which "due to the poor state of conservation it presented, Cecilia, acting in good faith, 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 more than a century in the Santuario de la Misericordia near Zaragoza.

At the time, Giménez, then 81, explained that parishioners had "traditionally fixed everything here", and that she had been given the go-ahead from the parish priest to do the work.

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

An Unexpected Tourist Boom

The aftermath of the repaint job led to the creation of the "Monkey Christ" meme and saw the once quiet town of Borja quickly become a significant tourist destination.

The municipality, which had previously seen only five thousand visitors per year, attracted more than 40,000 tourists by 2013, and managed to raise more than €50,000 for charity from the attention.

Today, officials estimate that somewhere around 15,000 and 20,000 tourists visit Borja every year to view the famous portrait, which is now protected by a protective shield of glass.

Later Life and Local Admiration

Following the initial backlash, with support from local residents and well-wishers globally, Giménez later stage an art exhibition showcasing twenty-eight of her own paintings.

She was commended by the mayor for her kind-hearted nature and years of dedication to the parish.

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