Police stand by the statue of the Little Mermaid after it was vandalized, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Friday, July 3, 2020. The famed statue of Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid, one of Copenhagen’s biggest tourist draws, has been vandalized … again. The text “racist fish” was tagged on the stone of which the oft-attacked 1.65-meter (5.4-foot)-high bronze is sitting on at the entrance of the Copenhagen harbor, the Ekstra Bladet daily reported. No one has taken responsibility for the act. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/ Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The famed statue of Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid, one of Copenhagen’s biggest tourist draws, has been vandalized with the text “racist fish.”
The words were tagged on the stone on which the oft-attacked 1.65-meter (5.4-foot)-high bronze is sitting at the entrance of the Copenhagen harbor.
No one has taken responsibility for the act.
The statue was created in tribute to the Danish storyteller Andersen. It has long been a popular target for vandals, who have blown her off her perch, beheaded her, and painted her.
The bronze is based on a mythical sea king’s mermaid daughter who, according to the Hans Christian Andersen tale, falls in love with a prince and longs to become human.
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.