Little Mermaid Almost Loses Her Head to Vandal
Denmark’s national symbol, The Little Mermaid, has been vandalized by someone who tried to sever the bronze statue’s head using a metal cutter, police said today.
“Whoever did it seems to have been frightened off in the middle of the job. A 7-inch slice is missing from the left-hand side of the neck,” Copenhagen police inspector Jens Christensen said.
Damage to the Little Mermaid is always handled by the Copenhagen homicide squad. The famous statue was created by Danish sculptor Erik Eriksen in 1914 in honor of the fairy tale of the same name by Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen.
Thousands of tourists flock to Copenhagen harbor each year to view the melancholy mermaid, who looks across the choppy waters of the open harbor.
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