Little Mermaid home safely from Shanghai
November 21, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
DENMARK'S Little Mermaid received applause and fanfares yesterday as the famous statue was reinstalled at its home perch in Copenhagen harbor after spending six months in Shanghai.
The landmark had left Denmark for the first time in its 97-year history in April to become the centerpiece of the Danish pavilion at the World Expo Shanghai.
The move raised controversy since some Danes considered it disrespectful to ship a cultural treasure across the globe in a public relations gesture.
At yesterday's reinstallation ceremony, the city's mayor, Frank Jensen, reassured the welcoming crowd of nearly 200 people that the statue's voyage had been "a once in a lifetime trip" and that there are no near-term plans to do so again.
"Now she is back and is going to have some rest on her stone," he said, adding that it had felt like a family member leaving for a long journey when the statue was sent away.
"It's nice to have her back, I missed her. Her spot looked so empty," said Kirsten Geertsen, a 74-year-old resident who takes walks by the harbor daily.
During the mermaid's absence, a video installation by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei showed a live broadcast of the statue in Shanghai. But, said Geertsen, "seeing her on a screen wasn't the same."
At the ceremony, a crane smoothly lifted the 1.5-meter statue from a truck and onto its rocky corner of Copenhagen harbor.
The fishtailed bronze is one of Denmark's most popular tourist attractions, drawing an estimated one million visitors a year. Little Mermaid drew 5.6 million visitors - equal to Denmark's population - during her six-month residency at the World Expo Shanghai.
The statue was inspired by the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale about a mermaid who falls in love with a prince and must wait 300 years to become human.
The landmark had left Denmark for the first time in its 97-year history in April to become the centerpiece of the Danish pavilion at the World Expo Shanghai.
The move raised controversy since some Danes considered it disrespectful to ship a cultural treasure across the globe in a public relations gesture.
At yesterday's reinstallation ceremony, the city's mayor, Frank Jensen, reassured the welcoming crowd of nearly 200 people that the statue's voyage had been "a once in a lifetime trip" and that there are no near-term plans to do so again.
"Now she is back and is going to have some rest on her stone," he said, adding that it had felt like a family member leaving for a long journey when the statue was sent away.
"It's nice to have her back, I missed her. Her spot looked so empty," said Kirsten Geertsen, a 74-year-old resident who takes walks by the harbor daily.
During the mermaid's absence, a video installation by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei showed a live broadcast of the statue in Shanghai. But, said Geertsen, "seeing her on a screen wasn't the same."
At the ceremony, a crane smoothly lifted the 1.5-meter statue from a truck and onto its rocky corner of Copenhagen harbor.
The fishtailed bronze is one of Denmark's most popular tourist attractions, drawing an estimated one million visitors a year. Little Mermaid drew 5.6 million visitors - equal to Denmark's population - during her six-month residency at the World Expo Shanghai.
The statue was inspired by the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale about a mermaid who falls in love with a prince and must wait 300 years to become human.
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