Is it a mermaid? Is it a fish? No, silly... it’s a merman!
In fact it’s a monkey’s head sewn onto the body of a fish, and no, sadly it’s not real. It’s made from the dried parts of a fish tail and a monkey’s head, mounted onto a wooden support. It is believed to have been created sometime in the 18th century in Japan, and was donated to the British Museum by the grandson of Queen Victoria, HRH Prince Arthur of Connaught.
The freaky creature has its hands up and gnarly teeth exposed, looking more like the man in Edvard Munch’s famous painting The Scream than Disney’s The Little Mermaid.
