Copyright Row over Copenhagen's Little Mermaid Sculpture

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Source: worldcrunch.com/little-mermaid-sculpture-has-been-through-a-lot-but-is-she-really-so-unique

Copyright Row Over Copenhagen's Little Mermaid Sculpture
Maybe that's just what a mermaid looks like...

Carl KarlssonAugust 12, 2021

Since its unveiling in 1913, the Little Mermaid sculpture has become one of Copenhagen's main tourist attractions. But Edvard Eriksen's five-foot unassumingly perched homage to Christian Andersen's fairy tale has also had its fair share of drama.

The first came in 1964, when the bronze sculpture became the victim of an abandoned lover's rage and was beheaded with a hacksaw. Then, in 1998, it happened again; this time by an extremist feminist group. The list of survival events also includes a severed and stolen (but then returned) arm, being launched off her rock and into the water (explosives), stabbed in the neck and in 2015 — perhaps most brutal of all — getting banned from Facebook for breaching nudity guidelines.

Now, according to the Eriksen hiers, Den Lille Havfrue is now under fresh attack. In a letter to Mikael Klitgaard, mayor of the northern municipality of Brønderslev, the heirs claim that a more recent sculpture, put in place four years ago in Asaa Havn, bears too much resemblance to the original, and demanded that the copy be demolished.

It's not the first time the heirs have taken legal action to protect their ancestors' heritage. Several publications have been charged with copyright infringement after publishing pictures of the mermaid, there among daily Berlingske Tidende that was fined 285.000 Danish kroner ($45,000) last year for a caricature depiction of the Eriksen work.

While Brønderslev Mayor Mikael Klitgaard questions the heirs' motives in claiming patent right "for a whole animal species," the Little Mermaid's century-long fight for survival has no doubt earned her a special place in Danish society. Many of the less violent attacks seem to be an outlet for locals' expression, including spray paint and political messaging: For a while she wore a burqa — apparently a protest against Turkey joining the EU — and last year she had both "Free Hong Kong" and "Racist Fish" scrawled across her base.

Meanwhile, the defendant in the plagiarism case, Palle Mørk, dismisses the claim that his work isn't original. Responding to the charge that his creation is perched in the same position, Mørk said to Danish TV2: "Well, how the he** else should a mermaid sit on a rock? She doesn't have legs."

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Source: www.euronews.com/2021/08/19/copenhagen-s-little-mermaid-finds-herself-in-the-middle-of-a-dispute

DENMARK

Copenhagen's Little Mermaid finds herself in the middle of a dispute

By euronews • Updated: 19/08/2021 - 12:39

The world-famous 'The Little Mermaid' sculpture in the Danish capital Copenhagen, has been watching the harbour serenely for over a century. However, a more recent artwork elsewhere in the country has caused a bit of tension.

A newer mermaid statute in Asaa Havn first showed its face in 2016, but its days might be coming to an end.

Heirs to the rights of The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen believe that the "rival" shares too many similarities with the original and therefore it must be plagiarism. They say "it looks too much like the original in Copenhagen" and demand the new statue be dismantled and destroyed.

Locals and visitors think the two are not alike. "I don’t think that she looks like the one in Copenhagen. There is a big difference. The one in Copenhagen is all smooth, this one is rougher." says a man walking past the sculpture.

Another by-passer adds, "It’s sitting in the same way. On the rock, with the tail out. I don't think it resembles the one in Copenhagen, there are big differences. The one in Copenhagen is smooth, this one is rough."

The sculptor Palle Mork, who created the mermaid in Asaa Havn, defended his work, saying it's much larger and made of a different material. But the protectors of Edvard Eriksen's iconic 1913 statue waging a battle for years to protect the artwork's image and usage rights.

The two mermaids themselves are maintaining a stony silence.

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Source: www.traveller.com.au/the-little-mermaid-copenhagen-second-danish-mermaid-statue-makes-waves-in-copyright-row-h1y1c4

The Little Mermaid, Copenhagen: Second Danish mermaid statue makes waves in copyright row
Richard Orange


The original Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen harbour by Edvard Eriksen. Photo: Alamy

A small harbour town in northern Denmark has found itself at the centre of a copyright battle after it was ordered to destroy a statue of a mermaid accused of being too similar to Copenhagen's famous Little Mermaid sculpture.

The rival mermaid was placed in the harbour of Asaa on the north-east coast of the Jutland peninsula four years ago and shows a mermaid on a rock looking like it has just swum in from the sea.

But the heirs of Edvard Eriksen, the Danish-Icelandic artist who created the Copenhagen version back in 1913, this month sent a threatening letter to the local mayor demanding that the artwork be removed and destroyed.


And the new granite sculpture in Asaa Harbour made by Palle Mork. Photo: Alamy

"I must admit that I could not help but laugh a little when I received the inquiry. A cow is a cow, and a mermaid is a mermaid," Mikael Klitgaard, the mayor of Bronderslev municipality, told the Danish broadcaster TV2.

"One cannot patent an entire species, and, by the way, I do not think the two mermaids are similar. Ours is plumper and has a completely different face."


Palle Mork, the artist who made the new mermaid, rejected any claim that he had modelled his work on the Copenhagen statue or that the two sculptures were striking the same pose.

"Well, how the he** should a mermaid sit on a rock? She doesn't have legs, but fins. You cannot have a patent on mermaids," he told the broadcaster.

"It doesn't look the same at all," he added. "My mermaid is made of granite and not bronze, and it is more than twice as big as the one in Copenhagen."

Eriksen's heirs are famously rigorous in the enforcement of their copyright, despite the fact that the character the Little Mermaid was conceived by writer Hans Christian Andersen nearly 80 years before the sculptor's version.


The Danish newspapers Politiken and Berlingske have both been fined for using an image of the Little Mermaid sculpture without permission, and in 2009 the heirs demanded a licensing fee from the town of Greenville in Michigan, which had erected a mermaid statue to celebrate its Danish heritage.

However, so far the controversy has only benefited the harbour town, according to Thomas Nymann, chairman of the local council.

"The more life we can get at the port, the better. I do not know if I would use the word 'boom', but the other day there was a tourist bus from Korsor that wanted to see the mermaid," he told state broadcaster DR.