Scaffolding now envelops Guadalajara’s iconic Minerva statue as experts this week began preliminary examination of the public monument prior to a major makeover.
The eight-million peso restoration project has been dogged by controversy ever since the plan was announced two months ago. As work started Monday, opposition city councilors questioned the credentials of chief restorer, Karla Jáuregui, chosen by Mayor Enrique Alfaro. The councilors from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) accused the Citizen’s Movement mayor of lying when he claimed that Jáuregui had been approved by Jalisco’s Culture Secretary and INBA’s School for Conservation and Fine Arts.
Alfaro brushed off the criticism, preferring to concentrate on the positives of the project, saying the statue will soon “be as good as new” and that his administration “could not let anything happen to such an important reference for the city.” During a photo op at the monument, Alfaro climbed the scaffolding and tore away a rotting clump of stone from the statue, confirming its restoration was a priority.