Warsaw mermaid has chest covered for Miss World

WARSAW (Reuters) - Warsaw's symbol, a half naked mermaid, will have her chest covered on a poster promoting the Miss World competition after the original version was judged too erotic.

"The way the artist drew it first, one of her breasts was covered and one wasn't," said Tadeusz Deszkiewicz, director of Warsaw's promotion bureau. "The combination was very erotic."

The artist redrew the poster to include a sash over the mermaid's exposed breast. The Miss World pageant will be held in Warsaw on September 30.

The mermaid, central to Warsaw's founding legend, is depicted in two statues in the capital and appears on the city's crest as naked from the waist up.