Artist sues for royalties as church cashes in on image

A Spanish woman who made headlines worldwide for her botched attempt to restore a 20th-century painting of Jesus Christ says she has hired lawyers and wants royalties from the fees church owners are charging visitors, according to the daily Spanish-language newspaper El Correo.

The local artist, 80-year-old Cecilia Gimenez, initially defended her volunteer work saying she was restoring the decaying Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) portrait because no one else would.

The before and after pictures went viral across the globe and tourists began arriving in droves.