[3] Based on the 1837 fairy tale of the same name by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, the small and unimposing statue is a Copenhagen icon and has been a major tourist attraction since its unveiling in 1913.

On April 24, 1964, the statue's head was sawn off and stolen by politically oriented artists of the Situationist movement, amongst them Jørgen Nash.

[1] On January 6, 1998, the statue was decapitated again;[9][10] the culprits were never found, but the head was returned anonymously to a nearby television station, and reattached on February 4.

Later, police said the writing was likely referring to Abdulle Ahmed, a Somalian refugee who has been detained in a high security unit in Denmark since 2001 due to a custody sentence.

[18] On 3 June 2020, in the wake of the George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter movement, the statue was vandalized with the words "racist fish" scrawled on its stone base,[19] which left observers and specialists puzzled, as nothing related to the statue, H.C. Andersen or his fairy tale could be construed as racist.

[20] In March 2022, "Z = svastika" was written on the stone base of the statue, which was thought to be opposition to Russia and their invasion of Ukraine, where Russian forces widely used "Z" as their symbol.

[18] Aside from the statue on display, which is a replica of the original,[1] more than thirteen undamaged copies of the statue are located around the world, listed by Mermaids of Earth,[25] including Solvang, California; Kimballton, Iowa;[26] Piatra Neamţ, Romania;[26] Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid), Spain; Seoul, South Korea;[27] and a half-sized copy in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

[citation needed] A copy of the statue forms the Danish contribution to the International Peace Gardens in Salt Lake City.

A replica of the statue was presented by Denmark to Brazil in 1960, in honor of the construction of Brasília, the country's new capital that was inaugurated in the year.

It was installed just 5 years later in front of the main building of the Brazilian Navy Command, in Brasília, Federal District, where it remains today.

[26] In 2009, the Artists Rights Society asked the town for a $3,800 licensing fee, claiming the work violated Eriksen's copyright.

[26] At about 76 cm (30 in) in height, the replica in Greenville is half the size of the original, and has a different face and larger breasts as well as other distinguishing factors.