An elderly woman who destroyed a 19th century fresco in a Spanish church while trying to restore it has shifted blame to the church priest.
Pensioner Cecilia Gimenez, 81, came under fire for ruining the 120-year-old painting of Jesus Christ by Elias Garcia Martinez after covering it in a thick layer of paint.
Ms Giminez altered the painting so much that BBC Europe correspondent Christian Fraser described it as now resembling "a crayon sketch of a very hairy monkey in an ill-fitting tunic".
Appearing on Spanish television, Ms Giminez said the church's priest had authorised the repairs.
"We have always repaired everything ourselves here. The priest knew about it. Of course he did," she said, according to a BBC translation.
"How could I do something like that without permission? I did not do it in secret. Anybody who entered the church was able to see me painting."
Mr Martinez's granddaughter Teresa Garcia Blanc was scathing of the attempted restoration.
"They showed me what had been done to my grandfather's artwork and at first I laughed because I thought it was a joke," she said.
"It was bad enough she painted the tunic. But the problem got worse when she started on the face, because the painting is now completely destroyed."
face. The mouth is the best bit, looks like it was a bit too complex, so she decided to just smudge it.