Local sculptor's botched Baby Jesus head leaves Canadian parishioners bemused

A small-town sculptor’s attempt to restore the beatific visage of the Christ Child to a vandalised statue outside a Canadian church has left parishioners unimpressed – and the Internet amused.

Local artist Heather Wise was walking in the grounds of St Anne des Pins church in Sudbury, northern Ontario, when she noticed the head was missing from a white stone statue of the Infant Jesus and his mother Mary.

Wise was “sad” to learn that the artwork had been beheaded by vandals, and volunteered to craft a replacement, she told Sudbury.com. “I am privileged to be able to do this,” she said, calling it the “honour of [her] entire art career.”

Yet Father Gerard Lajeunesse, who accepted her offer, said the new clay head, which resembles Lisa Simpson with a Donald Trump tan, had left churchgoers disappointed. “It really is shocking to the eyes because of the big contrast in colour,” the priest told CBC News, adding: “It’s a first try.”

The statue has stood outside St Anne des Pins for almost a decade and been vandalised several times. “It’s always Jesus’ head that goes missing,” said Lajeunesse. Normally, it was left nearby, but when it was last sliced off a year ago, “We looked high and low. No head. No Jesus.”

A custom-made stone replacement could cost up to C$10,000 (£6,200), Lajeunesse said. Either way, he may have to remove Wise’s clay head, he told the Toronto Star. “I have noticed that, with the rain, the clay is eroding,” he said.

Many have likened Wise’s efforts to an elderly woman’s botched touch-up of a 19th century fresco at the church of Santuario de Misericodia in Spain, which became an unlikely viral sensation in 2012.