Danish agency for palaces and culture requests removal of 14-ton sculpture from Dragør Fort in Copenhagen
A debate has erupted in Denmark over the fate of a mermaid statue that is to be removed from public view after being decried as “ugly and pornographic” and “a man’s hot dream of what a woman should look like”.
The Danish agency for palaces and culture is reportedly removing the 4x6 metre Den Store Havfrue (the Big Mermaid) from Dragør Fort, part of Copenhagen’s former sea fortifications, because it does not align with the cultural heritage of the 1910 landmark.
Politiken’s art critic, Mathias Kryger, has branded the statue “ugly and pornographic”. Sorine Gotfredsen, a priest and journalist, wrote in the newspaper Berlingske: “Erecting a statue of a man’s hot dream of what a woman should look like is unlikely to promote many women’s acceptance of their own bodies.”
She added: “It’s truly uplifting that many find the statue vulgar, unpoetic, and undesirable, because we’re suffocating in overbearing bodies in public space.”
