End-of-year lists are being frantically revised this month following the meteoric rise of Darwin, the Ikea monkey, in the public consciousness.
Until last week, it appeared certain the top monkey story of 2012 would be claimed by Celia Gimenez, the 80-year-old amateur restoration artist from the little Spanish town of Borja. Gimenez became a sensation back in August when pictures spread on the Internet of a 20th-century Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) fresco of Christ she’d taken down from a Borja chapel and clumsily disfigured while trying to restore it.
Twitter users redubbed Gimenez’s touch-up work Ecce Mono (Behold the Monkey). The botched painting’s new likeness to an Arctic Ookpik struck a particularly resonant note with some Canadian observers.
The monkey business currently top of mind, though, concerns the little simian who captured worldwide attention last week after he somehow let himself out of a parked car and was found ambling around outside a Toronto Ikea store, dressed in a fitted shearling coat.
Darwin is now living in a primate sanctuary northeast of Toronto while his former owner and fashion consultant considers her legal remedies for regaining custody.
That woman, Yasmin Nakhuda, has said she kept Darwin near her at all times in the five months that she’s owned him, including while she slept and showered.
Darwin reportedly seems happy in his new home.
As for Gimenez, the unfortunate artist, a happy ending is emerging there as well. Her fresco fumble has since become a tourist attraction in Borja and the image has been used on T-shirts and wine labels.
Now something of a celebrity, she is auctioning one of her other painterly works on eBay for charity.
Edmonton Journal
