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The elderly woman from Spain who made international headlines for her infamous repair job on a cherished religious painting has died at the age of 94.

The woman, a resident of the town of Borja in northeast Spain, became a global sensation thirteen years ago after she undertook to restore a century-old fresco known as Ecce Homo housed within her local church.

Giménez's restoration effort spread across the internet and earned the moniker "Monkey Christ", largely due to the resulting likeness of Christ's head looking somewhat like a furry primate.

Local Announcement and Tribute

The 94-year-old's death was confirmed by Borja's mayor, Eduardo Arilla, in a social media post, where he described her as a "great 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 August 2012, which "because of the deteriorated condition it was in, Cecilia, acting in good faith, chose to apply new paint over the original".

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 more than a century in the Sanctuary of Mercy Church near Zaragoza.

In 2012, Giménez, who was 81 years old, explained that church members had "always repaired everything here", and that she had received permission from the local priest to proceed.

She added at the time that anybody who came into the church would have observed she was painting over the existing image.

An Unexpected Tourist Boom

The impact of the restoration spawned the "Monkey Christ" meme and saw the previously sleepy town of Borja quickly become a major tourist destination.

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

Currently, local authorities say that between 15,000 and 20,000 tourists travel to Borja each year to view the notorious painting, which is now displayed behind a pane of glass.

Legacy and Local Admiration

Following the initial backlash, with support from local residents and well-wishers around the world, Giménez later hold an exhibition of her paintings featuring 28 of her personal works.

She was praised by Borja's mayor for her generosity and decades of faithful service to the parish.

Ultimately, what began as a well-intentioned but flawed art repair forged an improbable cultural icon and brought remarkable attention and resources to a small Spanish town.