Denmark to axe Copenhagen's 'pornographic and too primitive' mermaid statue

Plans to remove a statue of a mermaid in Denmark from a historical landmark have sparked debate, with the busty sculpture criticised as "ugly and pornographic".

The granite 14-tonne Den Store Havfrue (the Big Mermaid) is to be removed from Dragør Fort, part of Copenhagen's old sea fortifications, according to local media.

The Danish Palaces and Culture Agency reportedly made the decision because the statue does not "fit into the cultural-historical environment" of the 1910 landmark.

Mathias Kryger, art critic for the Danish paper Politiken, told local media that the statue was "ugly and pornographic". Writing in the newspaper Berlingske, another journalist, Sørine Gotfredsen, said many people found the statue "vulgar, unpoetic and undesirable".

However, the man who commissioned the statue, Peter Bech, said it was a boon for the Dragør area and attracted visitors. He described the criticism as "pure nonsense".

"The mermaid has completely normal proportions in relation to her size. Of course the breasts are big on a big woman," Bech told Danish broadcaster TV 2 Kosmopol.

Municipal politician Paw Karslund echoed that view.

"I simply think the argument that the statue should be ugly and pornographic is too primitive," he told the outlet last week. "We shouldn't be so afraid of a pair of breasts."

Bech has said he wants to find a way to keep the statue in the area, while Karslund has called for it to be moved to a permanent fixture in the nearby Tårnby Strandpark.

The Big Mermaid was first installed at Langelinie Pier in Copenhagen, near the Little Mermaid, in 2006. But it was removed in 2018 and relocated to Dragør — some 15 kilometres south of the Danish capital — reportedly after criticism from local residents.

The famed statue of Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid, one of Copenhagen’s biggest tourist attractions, has repeatedly been vandalised in recent years. The mermaid has been blown off her perch, covered in paint and political slogans, and even beheaded.

In 2023, the installation of a mermaid sculpture called Il Mare (The Sea) in the small fishing town of Monopoli in Italy’s Puglia region drew criticism for being "too provocative".