Who doesn't know the famous fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen "The Little Mermaid"? This sad story about the sea maiden, who fell in love with the handsome prince and made sacrifices for him to become a man, immediately after the book was published in 1837, became very popular and subsequently was repeatedly filmed. And on August 23, 1913 in the Danish capital Copenhagen on the Langelini embankment at the entrance to the harbor a bronze monument to the Little Mermaid appeared.
Talisman for sailors
Now, as in the fairy tale, the sea girl could look at the ships sailing by.
The installation of the monument was sponsored by local brewer Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg, who was impressed by the ballet based on the fairy tale The Little Mermaid. And it was cast from bronze by the young sculptor Edward Eriksen. According to the idea of the same Jacobsen, he sculpted the statue from his own wife Elina. She was the prima ballerina of the Royal Opera and Ballet, performing under the stage name Ellen Price. And it was she who performed the part of the Little Mermaid in the ballet. Maybe that's why the heroine turned out to be so alive. Immediately after the opening, Jacobsen presented the statue as a gift to the city in a solemn atmosphere.
The sculpture, which is 1.25 m high and weighs about 175 kg, is called Den Lille Havfrue in Danish (literally - "Sea Lady"). She immediately became incredibly popular. Tourists from all over Europe flocked to Copenhagen to see the Little Mermaid. And the inhabitants of Copenhagen themselves began to consider the statue as their talisman. The sailors came to the Little Mermaid for parting words on the eve of the voyage. And their wives and lovers asked her that their men return home safely …
Gradually, many began to believe: The Little Mermaid is alive! In cold weather, a fur coat was put on the bronze girl, and a hat on her head so that she would not "catch a cold".
Promotional video:
Victim of vandalism
This went on for more than half a century. During this time, copies of the Little Mermaid appeared in many cities of the world: Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Shenzhen, Sydney, even in Russian Saratov … And on the morning of April 25, 1964, the Copenhagenians saw that someone sawed off the Little Mermaid's head! The embankment was immediately filled with an angry crowd. It's good that the police guessed to cover the statue with a veil.
Despite the fact that the city authorities promised a reward of 7 thousand kroons to those who point out the criminal and those who manage to find the severed head, they did not manage to get out on the trail of unknown vandals. There was only information that it was a group of Trotskyist artists.
It was decided to "attach" a new head to the Little Mermaid. Fortunately, it turned out that the Copenhagen Museum of Fine Arts kept a plaster cast of the work of Eriksen, who by that time was no longer alive, he died in 1959. True, his son was alive, also a sculptor by profession. He led the restoration work.
The whole world followed the fate of the Little Mermaid. Eriksen Jr. received sacks of letters from children and adults, begging to quickly restore the favorite monument to Andersen's heroine. A month later, the restored sculpture was again presented to the public. Even 85-year-old Eline Eriksen, the widow of the late sculptor, attended the opening.
To protect it from future vandals, the monument was illuminated with a powerful searchlight at night, and a police post was erected nearby. But in the summer of the same year, someone with a hacksaw tried to saw off the Little Mermaid's hands. In 1976, the sculpture's tail was damaged. On July 22, 1984, two teenagers sawed off her arm. True, they returned it later. In 1990 they tried to saw off the head again. Fortunately, this did not work, and only the neck was damaged. However, in 1998 the head was still cut off. Subsequently, she was planted at the local TV station. The head was returned to its place.
On September 11, 2003, a real terrorist attack was organized: the Little Mermaid was blown up and thrown from the pedestal. And in 2004, she was put on a burqa in protest against Turkey's entry into the European Union.
Several times the statue was stained with red paint. For the first time this happened back in 1961, when the Little Mermaid's hair was dyed red and a bra was added to her. The last time the act of vandalism occurred on June 14, 2017: the monument was doused with blue and white paint.
Who is the Little Mermaid bothering?
From March 25 to October 31, 2010, the sculpture was at the World Exhibition in Shanghai. Just in case, the route along which the Little Mermaid was taken was kept in the strictest confidence, and at the exhibition, near the statue, security was on duty around the clock. While the Little Mermaid was away from Copenhagen, a video installation by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was shown at the site of her installation.
Why has the Little Mermaid been attacked by vandals so many times? Indeed, in Andersen's fairy tale she was an extremely positive character: on the contrary, she was destined for a rather sad fate - she turned into sea foam when her beloved married another … Probably, some monuments are destined to repeat the fate of the originals.
Author: Zhanna Kazakova