The Danish government has decided to remove a 13-foot tall \u2018Big Mermaid\u2019 stone statue from public view at Drag\u00f8r Fort in Copenhagen, after it invited criticism for its exaggerated features. The Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces, which is a part of the Danish Ministry of Culture, reportedly noted that it does not suit the fort\u2019s historical environs, which date back to 1910-15.<\/p>\n
In a report, The Art Newspaper quoted the Agency as stating: \u201c\u2026the agency determined that alterations had been made to Drag\u00f8r Fort, including the installation of a large mermaid sculpture, without prior permission. The agency has assessed that the sculpture must be removed from Drag\u00f8r Fort, as it disrupts the fortification\u2019s military structure and constitutes an element that is unfamiliar to the site.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The 14-tonne granite statue was first unveiled in Copenhagen in 2006, at a site that was at a distance of a few kilometers from Denmark\u2019s famous bronze statue of the \u2018Little Mermaid\u2019 \u2014 sculpted by Edvard Eriksen \u2014 inspired by Hans Christian Andersen\u2019s popular fairytale. Sitting on a rock at Langelinie Pier, it is a major tourist attraction.<\/p>\n
Story continues below this ad<\/p>\n
In 2018, the Big Mermaid was moved to Drag\u00f8r Fort that has been constructed on an artificial island south of the city.<\/p>\n
While Danish daily Politiken\u2019s art critic Mathias Kryger described the statue as \u201cugly and pornographic\u201d, Danish newspaper Berlingske journalist Sorine Gotfredsen reportedly wrote: \u201cErecting a statue of a man\u2019s hot dream of what a woman should look like is unlikely to promote many women\u2019s acceptance of their own bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statue has also found support from others. The Berlingske\u2019s editorial page editor, Aminata Corr Thrane, for instance, has been quoted by The Guardian as finding the criticism an act of body shaming. She wrote: \u201cDo naked female breasts have to have a specific academic shape and size to be allowed to appear in public?\u201d She added: \u201cPerhaps the two statues \u2013 the Big and the Little Mermaid \u2013 represent two sides of woman, and the eternal tug of war about what a real woman is. And perhaps even what a wrong woman is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Danish entrepreneur Peter Bech, who commissioned the statue, has defended it. A report in The Guardian quotes him as stating that the breasts of the statue are of \u201cproportional size\u201d. It also notes that Bech stated that he made the statue in response to remarks by tourists who found the Little Mermaid rather too small in size.<\/p>\n
Expand<\/p>\n
\u00a9 The Indian Express Pvt Ltd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Danish government has decided to remove a 13-foot tall \u2018Big Mermaid\u2019 stone statue from public view at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,121812,121806,121824,121809,121825,121818,121810,121817,121811,121816,121813,121808,121822,121814,4022,121819,121807,121821,77,121820,121815,121823,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-342426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-big-mermaid-statue-criticism","11":"tag-big-mermaid-statue-denmark","12":"tag-big-mermaid-statue-relocation","13":"tag-big-mermaid-vs-little-mermaid","14":"tag-body-shaming-art-debate-denmark","15":"tag-controversial-statues-in-europe","16":"tag-copenhagen-public-art","17":"tag-copenhagen-tourist-attractions","18":"tag-danish-agency-for-culture-and-palaces","19":"tag-danish-art-censorship","20":"tag-danish-body-image-debate","21":"tag-danish-mermaid-sculpture-controversy","22":"tag-danish-ministry-of-culture-statue-decision","23":"tag-denmark-statue-breasts-controversy","24":"tag-design","25":"tag-dragor-fort-history","26":"tag-dragor-fort-statue-removal","27":"tag-edvard-eriksen-little-mermaid","28":"tag-entertainment","29":"tag-hans-christian-andersen-mermaid","30":"tag-peter-bech-mermaid-statue","31":"tag-public-sculpture-denmark","32":"tag-uk","33":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/track_1x1.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
<\/p>\n