Oops! US news site thinks Rotterdam Centraal is in Amsterdam
By Victoria Séveno
A new statue erected outside Rotterdam Centraal has made international headlines this week - but Rotterdammers aren’t all too pleased about it. Why? The American site Yahoo News reports that the statue is the new “must-see attraction” at a train station…in Amsterdam.
Rotterdam charmed by Moments Captured statue
At the beginning of June, a four-metre bronze statue of a young woman by British artist Thomas J Price was placed at Stationsplein outside the main train station in the city of Rotterdam. The statue, called Moments Contained, has been incredibly well-received by locals, and this week has even been featured on international news sites.
Many have praised the artwork - and the artist - for simply highlighting an “ordinary-looking black woman”, as The Guardian puts it. Talking to the UK news outlet, 13-year-old Maada said it was “nice to see something other than a white man in a suit.”
Yahoo News calls Rotterdam Centraal “largest station in Amsterdam”
Even news outlets outside of Europe have picked up on the story - although some have apparently struggled to get to grips with the geography of the Netherlands. Case in point: Yahoo News ran the headline “Statue of black woman becomes must-see attraction at Amsterdam train station”.
In the article - which initially appeared on 21Ninety - the reporter explains that Moments Contained can be found “at the Rotterdam Centraal Station - which is the largest train station in Amsterdam.”
Source: Yahoo News.
Rotterdammers unimpressed by Yahoo blunder
Unsurprisingly, the residents of Rotterdam weren’t all too impressed with the article. Amsterdam-based news site AT5 took a trip down to the second-biggest Dutch city to talk to some of the locals about the confusion.
"A matter of ignorance I would say," one member of the public said, while another speculated that the article had been written by an intern. Another was able to put a more positive spin on the mistake: "They think that Rotterdam is actually the most important city in the Netherlands," she told AT5.
Thumb: My Eyes4u via Shutterstock.com.
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Victoria grew up in Amsterdam, before moving to the UK to study English and Related Literature at the University of York and completing her NCTJ course at the Press Association in London. She has a love for all things movies, animals, and food. Read more