‘Monkey Christ’ opera makes a hero of woman who botched Spanish fresco

Show celebrating Cecilia Giménez, who achieved unwanted global fame, premieres in Las Vegas this weekend

Eleven years after a simple act of devotion in a remote church in north-east Spain unleashed a media storm, spawned countless memes and created an unlikely tourist phenomenon, the trials and triumphs of the amateur artist behind the “Monkey Christ” restoration are being celebrated in an opera that premieres this week in Las Vegas.

Cecilia Giménez, now almost 93, achieved unwanted global fame in the summer of 2012 after attempting to restore a small fresco of the scourged and thorn-crowned Christ in the Santuario de Misericordia near her home town of Borja.