LONDON — A wax statue of Sinéad O’Connor that didn’t compare to what the late singer looked like caused a minor meltdown among fans and family members, prompting a museum in Dublin to remove it from its collection on Friday.
The National Wax Museum Plus apologized to O’Connor’s family and said it would immediately begin creating a more accurate representation of the singer best known for her 1990 cover of Prince’s ballad ‘Nothing Compares 2 U ‘.
John O’Connor said it was a “horrible” representation of his sister that looked like a cross between something in a department store window and a 1960s sci-fi TV show that used electronic puppets.
“When I saw it online yesterday I was shocked,” he told Irish broadcaster RTE. “I thought it looked somewhere between a mannequin and something from ‘Thunderbirds’.”
The museum had unveiled the figure on Thursday to mark the first anniversary of her death. O’Connor, 56, died of natural causes at her home in London on July 26, 2023.
O’Connor, who became a controversial figure after she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live in 1992, was considered a national treasure in Ireland, where she had begun performing on the streets of Dublin.
Fans filled the street of her former seaside hometown during a funeral procession in August after a private service attended by then-Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, President Michael Higgins and musical greats such as Bono of U2 and Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats.
Accurately capturing the likeness of celebrities has misled many an artist.
A Polish wax museum was ridiculed last year for what some called creepy depictions of Kate, Princess of Wales, and her husband, Prince William. A sculptor who mocked his bronze of Portuguese football great Cristiano Ronaldo has returned to his studio for a makeover that has been more warmly received.
Similarly, U.S. women’s soccer player Brandi Chastain received a replacement for a panned plaque that compared her to the looks of actors Gary Busey and Mickey Rooney, and former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick.
Paddy Dunning, the director of the Dublin museum who called O’Connor an old friend, said she deserved a better tribute.
“In response to public feedback about the wax figure, we acknowledge that the current representation did not meet our high standards or the expectations of Sinead’s devoted fans,” the museum said in a statement.
John O’Connor said he was upset by the timing of the revelation and the fact that no one had contacted his family.
“Like I said before, the world may have lost a star, and it did, but I lost my sister,” he said. “It just shouldn’t have been put there, even without asking someone, ‘Is this OK?’ ”
