After being covered with golden tops, the giant statues of mermaids were removed from a resort in the country’s capital Ancol Dreamland Park, The Jakarta Post reports. The outlet cites the spokeswoman of the city-owned property developer, running the facility, Rika Lestari, saying that they are working to make the statues “look better”.
“[The statues] are currently being fixed. They became the centre of attention so we are fixing them to improve them”, she told the newspaper without giving any further details, e.g. which parts are being fixed, or whether the figures were somehow damaged or broken.
She also did not specify when the repairs would be finished or when the new-look mermaids would return to their spots.
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The decorations at Ancol Dreamland Park landed in the international spotlight after it the operator covered the naked breasts of the two giant mermaids, which have been there for decades, with golden tube tops, called kemben in Indonesia. The park’s management decided they were incompatible with “eastern norms”, according to The Jakarta Post. The company’s spokeswoman Rika Lestari revealed they covered the artworks last year, saying the company’s “objective, other than beautifying them, was to adjust to eastern norms”.
According to her, no outside group pressed the administration to cover the statues. She explained that Ancol did hide the breasts under the shiny fabric because “it is trying to become an amusement park and vacation spot for families”.
“We’re eastern people, we have eastern culture, so what was inappropriate we made it more appropriate. It’s just a matter of perception, because what we’ve done was the best for us. It’s a good thing, so why not”, she told the Indonesian newspaper Kompas.
However, the change did not seem to sit well with visitors, who kept pulling the tops down, according to The Guardian, and netizens, who ripped the park online.
Some begged to uncover the mermaids again since they’re simply works of art.