H.C. Andersen Sculpture in Odense Harbour

The Sculpture and Its Controversial Creation

This 3-meter bronze figure of Hans Christian Andersen was created by renowned Danish artist Jens Galschiøt as the centerpiece of an ambitious project called The Storyteller's Well. Originally conceived as a monumental fountain featuring Andersen seated on a bench with his feet in the water, surrounded by 500 characters from his fairy tales, the sculpture was unveiled outside Odense City Hall in 2005 to commemorate the author's 200th birthday. The project received substantial funding and widespread support, positioning it as a major cultural landmark for Denmark's fairy tale capital. However, the vision never materialized. The Odense city council struggled to find a suitable downtown location for the artwork and, following the financial crisis, withdrew funding entirely. For five years, the bronze figure stood abandoned outside City Hall—a monument to unfulfilled promises and bureaucratic indecision. Galschiøt, deeply disappointed by the project's collapse, decided to transform his frustration into a statement.

The Symbolic Burial and Public Protest

On October 8, 2011, Galschiøt orchestrated an extraordinary public performance. A brass band played funeral music as a horse-drawn carriage transported the €250,000 sculpture through Odense's streets to the harbour. Before hundreds of spectators dressed in black mourning clothes, a crane slowly lowered the bronze figure into the waters of Odense Fjord in a deliberate act of artistic protest. The event included free hot dogs and 'funeral beer,' transforming a moment of cultural defeat into a darkly humorous spectacle. Some locals found the happening disrespectful to Andersen's memory, while others appreciated the poetic irony: the author of *The Little Mermaid* and *The Ugly Duckling* now rested closer to his own fictional underwater worlds.

Resurrection and the Replica's Permanent Home

Just six months later, on April 2, 2012, Galschiøt 'resurrected' the sculpture for a combined celebration of Easter and Andersen's birthday. The original figure was recovered, repaired from water damage, and embarked on a tour throughout Denmark. It was eventually sold to a golf club in Bogense, where it found a new home overlooking the harbour—a fitting location given that the real Hans Christian Andersen himself had arrived at Bogense harbour by steamship in 1853. Yet the story took one final twist. A reproduction of the sculpture mysteriously reappeared in Odense Harbour one morning, installed without permission by Galschiøt himself. This replica has remained submerged in the dock basin for over a decade, becoming an unofficial but beloved fixture of Odense's waterfront. The sculpture sits just below the surface near Odense Havnebad, the public outdoor swimming pool, visible to anyone who knows where to look.

A Monument to Artistic Defiance

The H.C. Andersen sculpture in the harbour represents far more than a failed public art project. It embodies the tension between artistic vision and institutional bureaucracy, between grand ambitions and pragmatic limitations. Galschiøt's decision to submerge his work—rather than destroy it or accept defeat—transformed a disappointment into a statement about creative resilience. The sculpture's current status as an unauthorized but tolerated presence in the harbour reflects a distinctly Danish approach to public space: pragmatic, slightly irreverent, and ultimately forgiving. Visitors to Odense can contemplate this work as a meditation on impermanence, artistic integrity, and the power of symbolic protest. The sculpture's underwater position creates an almost dreamlike quality, fitting for a work dedicated to one of history's greatest storytellers. Whether viewed as a cautionary tale about city planning or a triumph of artistic persistence, the sculpture remains one of Denmark's most distinctive and thought-provoking public artworks.