Little Mermaid Statue

The Little Mermaid is a bronze statue depicting a mermaid becoming human. The sculpture is displayed on a rock by the waterside at the Langelinie promenade in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is 1.25 metres tall and weighs 175 kilograms. The statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg, who had been fascinated by a ballet about the fairytale in Copenhagen's Royal Theatre. The sculptor Edvard Eriksen created the bronze statue, which was unveiled on August 23, 1913. The statue's head was modelled after Ellen Price, but as the ballerina did not agree to model in the nude, the sculptor's wife, Eline Eriksen, was used for the body. The statue has been damaged and defaced many times since the mid-1960s for various reasons, but has been restored each time. It is a Copenhagen icon and has been a major tourist attraction since its unveiling in 1913