COPENHAGEN: A Russian flag was discovered painted onto the base of Denmark’s The Little Mermaid statue on Thursday (Mar 2) in what police said was a “case of vandalism” at Copenhagen’s most famous landmark and a popular tourist attraction.
It was not immediately known who was behind the incident, a police spokesperson said.
Denmark has been a vocal critic of Russia alongside other Western nations following last year’s invasion of Ukraine.
The 110-year-old bronze statue depicts the little mermaid from 19th-century Danish author Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of the same name, and is sat on a rock by a waterside promenade.
A few puzzled tourists photographed the vandalised statue on Thursday morning. The white, blue and red stripes of the Russian flag were painted across the front of the stone.
The 175kg statue by sculptor Edvard Eriksen has been vandalised numerous times over the years – including when the mermaid’s head was stolen in 1964 and 1998, as well as when an arm was cut off in 1984.
In 1998, vandals cut off its head again, but it was later returned before the statue was blown up in 2003.
It has been tagged and painted many times, most recently in 2020 with the mysterious inscription “Racist fish”.
