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Ancol covers nude mermaid statues
The mermaid statues in Ancol are not the first artworks in public places that have caused controversy.
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Cover up: A mermaid statue is seen with a golden cloth draped around its breasts at Ancol, North Jakarta, on Friday. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
wo mermaid statues at the Putri Duyung resort in Ancol Dreamland Park are no longer topless after the park operator decided last year that the artworks, which had been there for decades, were incompatible with “eastern norms”.
Gold torso wraps, locally known as kemben, now cover the upper body of the big mermaid statue near the lobby, and a smaller one near the entrance.
The move has baffled some people who found the statues innocuous and raised the question whether the park operator had been pressured by conservative groups. Ancol management, however, dismissed such claims, saying it had made its own decision with the intention of “beautifying” the statues.
“We covered them last year. Our objective, other than beautifying them, was to adjust to eastern norms,” city-owned property developer PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol spokesperson, Rika Lestari, told The Jakarta Poston Friday.
“There was no pressure. It was our decision,” she explained.
It is unclear why the company had decided only now to protect the statues’ modesty. The statues are thought to have been placed there shortly after the opening of the resort — the first one in the Ancol area — in 1973.
N. Syamsuddin Ch. Haesy, the editor in chief of news portal Akarpadinews.com, wrote on his website that Ancol’s decision to cover the statues could be aimed at making the resort a family-friendly tourist destination.
