There was once a stone mermaid at Kavourotrypes (meaning “Crab Holes”) at Sithonia, Halkidiki. Dionysios Karypidis sculpted it in 1997 and it gave the area an added edge of uniqueness. Until suddenly, last summer he showed up and destroyed his work. Was this the act of a mad artist? No, there was a reason for this destruction.

The sculptor prefered to destroy his famous mermaid than to pay the 531-euro fine that Sithonia’s Mayor Yiannis Tzitzios had asked for on March 3, 2014. At first the artist ignored the demand for payment for a work of art he had sculpted to give joy to bathers for free. As time went on, however, the mayor showed he meant business so the creator himself chose to destroy his own brilliant creation.