The statue of the Little Mermaid, emblem of Copenhagen and Denmark, was vandalized overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, with a large Russian flag painted on its base.
A flag was painted under unknown circumstances on the stone on which is placed the statue of the heroine of storyteller Hans Christian Andersen, located in the port of Copenhagen, noted an AFP journalist.
The Danish police have announced that they have opened an investigation, without mentioning any clues as to the origin of this apparent sign of support for Moscow in the midst of the war in Ukraine.
“We are carrying out research in the area in order to find leads,” a spokesman for the Copenhagen police told AFP.
A few puzzled tourists were photographing the vandalized statue on Thursday morning, in bright sunshine.
Located at the edge of the water, along a relatively isolated promenade, the bronze statue has been regularly the target of damage of all kinds since its installation in 1913.
In 1964, she was beheaded for the first time, without her head ever being returned. In 1998, vandals had again cut off his head, then returned, before the statue was the target of an explosion in 2003.
The work of Danish sculptor Edvard Eriksen, it has been tagged or painted many times, most recently in 2020 with the mysterious inscription “Racist fish”.
03/02/2023 14:26:53 – Copenhagen (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
