Statues and monuments around the world are getting timely facelifts as late, including the famed statue of The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen most recently.
The bronze creation of Hans Christian Andersen’s famous character is one of the city’s biggest tourist draws. On Friday, it was found to have been tagged with the words “racist fish” in black spray paint.
No one has taken responsibility for the act.
Ane Grum-Schwensen, a researcher at the HC Andersen Centre at the University of Southern Denmark, told the Danish news agency Ritzau: “I am having a hard time seeing what is particularly racist in the fairytale The Little Mermaid.”
The statue has long been a popular target for vandals, who have blown her off her perch, beheaded her and painted her.
“We consider it vandalism and have started an investigation,” a spokesman said.
The bronze statue was created as a tribute to the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale about a sea king’s mermaid daughter who longs to become human and falls in love with a prince.
Last month, a statue in Copenhagen of a Danish missionary who was key to the colonization of Greenland, was doused with red paint and the words “decolonize.”
It was not known whether the two cases of vandalism were linked. Statues and monuments around the world are being reconsidered in light of racial justice demonstrations following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Rights activists on Thursday accused Danish officials of being unable to recognize racism after authorities said the killing of a biracial man by two white men was not racially motivated.
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