Young Australian Charged for Supposedly Placing Sticker Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Artwork
A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly vandalizing a sizable blue sculpture of a mythical creature by applying googly eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, participated via phone at the local court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with one count of damaging property.
In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the local council said that CCTV footage captured a individual placing fake eyes on the artwork, which residents have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.
The accused did not enter a plea and told the court she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate recommending her to secure a lawyer before her next court date in the final month of the year.
A day after the alleged incident, the local mayor said that restoration to the popular community sculpture would be expensive as the stickers could not be removed without damaging the art piece.
“This wilful damage to a cherished public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor remarked in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is pricey - it is also disappointing to those members of our society who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”
She said the local government would pursue the “significant” repair costs from those accountable for the vandalism.
At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it received varied responses from the local community due to its price tag and design.
Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
