Botched Restoration Luring Scads of Tourists

The astoundingly botched "restoration" of a 19th-century Spanish fresco featuring Christ has become a hit with tourists—and now even has its own Twitter account ("once a handsome fresco, now a hedgehog," guffaws the parody profile). The horrible paint job by a well-intentioned elderly parishioner at a Borja church has created a work more popular than the original. Hordes of visitors are streaming to get a glimpse of the mangled art that looks like a "crayon sketch of a very hairy monkey in an ill-fitting tunic," in the judgement of the BBC.

Flowers are being left outside the home of parishioner Cecila Giminez. The painting is suddenly so popular that it's now roped off and protected by security guards, reports NBC. People not charmed by the overwhelming interest? The family of artist Garcis Martinez, who have called in experts to fix the damage ... though some 10,000 petitioners want to save the hedgehog. (More art stories.)