amazing fact

August 5th 2009 12:06
Little Mermaid
One of Denmark's most famous attractions is the statue of The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen who was based on the story by Danish Storyteller Hans Christian Anderson. Usually tourists are surprised at first, on witnessing her small size as she is only 1.25 metres high and weighs around 175 kg. She was sculpted by Edvard Eriksen and revealed to the public in August 1913.

Her history since has been a very turbulent one, even having her cut cut off more than once. There is actually a very faint line that can still be seen on her neck from having her head replaced. Having just come back from seeing her myself, I can attest to that, but I had no idea until this that she had been vandalised so often until I was introduced to her 'vandalism timeline'.

* 24 April 1964 – Her head was sawn off and stolen.The head was never recovered and a new head was produced and placed on the statue. (Apparently, or so I was told, the original mould for her head is still in existence.)

* 22 July 1984 – her right arm was sawn off. The arm was returned 2 days later.

* 1990 – another attempt was made to cut her head off as she was discovered with an 18 cm deep cut in the neck.

* 6 January 1998 – she lost her head again. The head was returned anonymously to a nearby TV station, and by February the head was back on.

* Red paint has been thrown on her several times, including one episode in 1961 where her hair was painted red and a bra was painted on her.

* March 8, 2006 – a dildo was attached to the statue's hand, green paint was dumped over it, with 'March 8' scrawled on it. Suspicion pointed to something to do with International Women's Day (March 8).

* March 3, 2007 – the statue was covered with pink paint.

* May 2007 – the statue was again covered in paint.