Little Mermaid statue's stolen head returnedStill no arrests in Copenhagen crimeJanuary 9, 1998Web posted at: 12:35 p.m. EST (1735 GMT) COPENHAGEN, Denmark (CNN) -- The Little Mermaid's head is back. The head of one of Denmark's most cherished symbols was left outside Copenhagen's TVDanmark late Thursday, where it was collected by police, who were checking for fingerprints before it is reattached. The sculpture, which has graced Copenhagen's harbor since 1913, was decapitated early Tuesday. No arrests have been made. Television news footage showed a hooded man carrying the statue's head. The film was taken by the same cameraman who was contacted Tuesday about the decapitation. The sculpture has been boarded up since the vandalism occurred. City officials were pleased that the statue's head was returned. A replacement head would have cost as much as $14,000. The Little Mermaid's head was sawed off once before, in 1964, and never recovered. It was replaced by a model. Several people, including a radical artist, claimed responsibility. The statue is a frequent target of vandals: One of the statue's arms was sawed off in 1983, and it is frequently daubed by paint and graffiti. On Thursday, a Danish feminist group claimed responsibility for the vandalism, but then withdrew its claim saying it had only wanted to attract attention to its cause. The statue was sculpted by Edvard Eriksen, and is based on a tale by Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen about the Sea King's half-human, half-fish daughter, commanded to wait on a harbor rock for 300 years before entering the world of humans. The sculpture attracts nearly a million visitors a year. Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 
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