Sunny Head. 'Loeres' by Edo van Tetterode, Zandvoort aan Zee, The Netherlands
No. This is not Easter Island - but first Europeans to set eyes on this remote island (1722) in the Pacific were Jacob Roggeveen (1659-1729) from Zeeland, The Netherlands, and his sailors. Nor is the statue a Moai.
The head is called 'Loeres', an older Dutch word for simpleton or 'you've-been-had'. As indeed many people were on April 1, 1962. Washed ashore, it seemed, at Zandvoort was this large sculpture. The media - writing press and also radio stations - were immediately on the scene. An expert said to be from Norway - Thor Heyerdahl and his Kon-tiki (1949) were still popular in The Netherlands - gave an interview. And many, also foreign media, were taken in by the elaborate hoax.
It had all been the doing of a Dutch sculptor, Edo van Tetterode (1929-1996), who'd sculpted this head and hidden it in the sand breakwater, and who'd impersonated a Norwegian expert. He was aided and abetted by the NCRV, a Dutch Christian radio station.
It's highly amusing to look at the photographs of the time with serious dignitaries examining this wash-up now gracing a dune top.
Today with an Easter-Island Blue Sky I parked my rented bike to walk on the beach. For lunch I chose Havana on the Sea, but might just as well have gone to another place called Rapa Nui, the native name for Easter Island.
Sunny Head. 'Loeres' by Edo van Tetterode, Zandvoort aan Zee, The Netherlands
No. This is not Easter Island - but first Europeans to set eyes on this remote island (1722) in the Pacific were Jacob Roggeveen (1659-1729) from Zeeland, The Netherlands, and his sailors. Nor is the statue a Moai.
The head is called 'Loeres', an older Dutch word for simpleton or 'you've-been-had'. As indeed many people were on April 1, 1962. Washed ashore, it seemed, at Zandvoort was this large sculpture. The media - writing press and also radio stations - were immediately on the scene. An expert said to be from Norway - Thor Heyerdahl and his Kon-tiki (1949) were still popular in The Netherlands - gave an interview. And many, also foreign media, were taken in by the elaborate hoax.
It had all been the doing of a Dutch sculptor, Edo van Tetterode (1929-1996), who'd sculpted this head and hidden it in the sand breakwater, and who'd impersonated a Norwegian expert. He was aided and abetted by the NCRV, a Dutch Christian radio station.
It's highly amusing to look at the photographs of the time with serious dignitaries examining this wash-up now gracing a dune top.
Today with an Easter-Island Blue Sky I parked my rented bike to walk on the beach. For lunch I chose Havana on the Sea, but might just as well have gone to another place called Rapa Nui, the native name for Easter Island.