The Spanish parishioner who achieved global fame for her poorly executed repair job on a cherished religious painting has died at the age of 94.
The woman, from the town of Borja in northern Spain, became a global sensation thirteen years ago after she attempted to restore a 100-year-old painting known as Ecce Homo housed within her parish church.
Giménez's handiwork spread across the internet and earned the moniker "Monkey Christ", because the resulting likeness of Christ's head bearing a resemblance to a furry primate.
The nonagenarian's passing was confirmed by the town's mayor, Eduardo Arilla, in a social media post, where he described her as a "passionate enthusiast of painting from a very early age".
"Descansa en paz Cecilia, your memory will live on with us," Arilla wrote.
Arilla also paid tribute to Giménez's "famous restoration of Ecce Homo" in the summer of 2012, which "because of the deteriorated condition it presented, Cecilia, with the best intentions, decided to repaint the work over".
The Ecce Homo ("This is the Man" in Latin) by nineteenth-century artist Elias Garcia Martinez had been held for over a century in the Santuario de la Misericordia close to Zaragoza.
At the time, Giménez, who was 81 years old, explained that church members had "traditionally fixed everything here", and that she had received permission from the local priest to do the work.
She added at the time that anybody who entered the Church would have seen she was applying paint to the existing image.
The aftermath of the repaint job spawned the "Monkey Christ" internet phenomenon and saw the once quiet town of Borja quickly become a major visitor attraction.
The town, which had previously seen only five thousand tourists per year, attracted more than 40,000 tourists by 2013, and generated more than €50,000 for charity from the interest.
Currently, officials say that between 15,000 and 20,000 tourists travel to Borja every year to view the notorious painting, which is now protected by a pane of glass.
Following the initial backlash, backed by local residents and well-wishers around the world, Giménez later hold an exhibition of her paintings showcasing 28 of her personal works.
She was commended by the mayor for her generosity and decades of dedication to the parish.
Ultimately, what began as a well-intentioned but unsuccessful art repair created an unlikely piece of pop culture and provided unprecedented attention and resources to a humble Spanish town.
