Mermaid statue with 'big bum' criticised for being 'too sexual'
A well-endowed statue of a mermaid with large breasts and a 'big bum' is making waves in the southern Italian port town of Monopoli, Puglia in Italy.
The voluptuous artwork has made a splash as it sits in a new town square called Piazza Rita Levi-Montalcini, which is named after a Nobel prize-winning scientist and Holocaust survivor.
But critics are unanimous in saying the mermaid is 'too sexual' to be on public display.
The statue was sculpted by students from the school in Monopoli after a €350,000 (£310,000) redevelopment of the town prompted the commission to 'improve the aesthetic and functional aspect of the area,' the Monopoli Times reported.
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Headteacher of the Luigi Rosso art school, Adolfo Marciano, has spoken out to defend the the statue as a 'tribute' to curvy women.
“The council was shown the scale model and said it was good, and then decided the completed sculpture would be placed in the square," Marciano told the Guardian.
"You see adverts on television with models who are very thin, but the mermaid is like a tribute to the great majority of women who are curvy, especially in our country.
"It would have been very bad if we had represented a woman who was extremely skinny.
"The students got together and came up with the idea of a mermaid."
The statue had locals rushing to Twitter to give their take with one saying: "But who could have inspired this? Kim Kardashian?"
While others revelled in the notoriety the statue had brought to the small Italian port town: "Monopoli in all the newspapers for a big-ass mermaid, that's us!"
Others from further afield called out the funny side: “Oh thank god Tucker Carlson got fired before he had an opportunity to do an hour long segment on mermaid ass.”
Meanwhile, a campaign for a more sombre and sentimental statue closer to home is also gaining momentum.
The petition for a statue of the late, great Paul O'Grady to be placed in his hometown of Birkenhead has gained well over 200K signatures since he passed on 28th March.
The UK was collectively devastated when the TV presenter, comedian and drag queen unexpectedly died last month.
The sudden news sparked a wave of mourning across Britain as many shared their fondest memories of Paul and his drag persona Lily Savage from the past few decades.
Amelia Jones