Young Australian Charged for Supposedly Placing Sticker Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Artwork
A teenager from Australia has faced legal proceedings after reportedly defacing a large art piece of a legendary being by applying googly eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on Tuesday, facing with a single charge of property damage.
In a statement at the moment of the recent event, the local council said that CCTV footage showed a individual putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.
Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and told the judge she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate advising her to secure a legal representative before her next court date in December.
A day after the reported event, the local mayor said that restoration to the much-loved community sculpture would be expensive as the stickers were impossible to be detached without harming the art piece.
“This intentional vandalism to a cherished community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those members of our society who have embraced the Blue Blob.”
She added the council would seek the “significant” repair costs from those accountable for the vandalism.
At the time the sculpture was initially suggested, it received varied responses from the area residents due to its price tag and appearance.
Costing A$136,000 ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the creators inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
