Statue of ‘curvy’ mermaid divides Italian fishing town

Busty statue divides opinion online before official unveiling

The statue has been turning heads and not only for its swimming tail (Monopoli Times)

An Italian town’s new mermaid statue has become the subject of ridicule for its buxom depiction of a woman.

The sculpture has not yet been officially unveiled in the fishing hotspot of Monopoli in Puglia, where it now sits near a town square, but locals are already unsure.

“It looks like a mermaid with two silicone breasts and, above all, a huge arse never seen before on a mermaid,” wrote Bari-based Tiziana Schiavarelli on the Facebook page for the Monopoli Times - which covers Puglia.

“[My friend] rightly expressed some perplexity about this monument,” he added.

An art college in Monopoli created the statue as a ‘tribute to women’ (Monopoli Times)

On Twitter, Gurkan Kilicaslan wrote: “It must be the statue of a Federico Fellini character,” in reference to the Italian filmmaker.

The statue was created by students of the nearby Luigi Rosso art school.

Adolfo Marciano, the headteacher, was quoted in the Guardian as saying the generously proportioned woman is a “tribute to the great majority of women who are curvy”.

“The students got together and came up with the idea of a mermaid,” he said.

The statue is part of a wider development of the area (Monopoli Times)

“The council was shown the scale model and said it was good, and then decided the completed sculpture would be placed in the square.”

He added: “The council was shown the scale model and said it was good, and then decided the completed sculpture would be placed in the square.”

The Monopoli Times said the statue is part of a wider redevelopment of the area which also includes a play area and further green spaces.

The project was intended to “improve the aesthetic and functional aspect of the area,” the newspaper reported.

One Twitter user saw a funny side, commenting: “Oh thank god Tucker Carlson got fired before he had an opportunity to do an hour long segment on mermaid ass.”

Another added: “Siri, please show me flights to southern Italy.”