Australian Teen Faces Charges for Allegedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Sculpture
A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after reportedly defacing a large art piece of a mythical creature by applying plastic eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, participated via phone at the local court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, facing with one count of property damage.
In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the local council said that surveillance video showed a individual putting artificial eyes on the artwork, which locals have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.
The accused did not enter a plea and told the court she was unwell, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate recommending her to secure a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.
The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor said that repairs to the much-loved community sculpture would be costly as the stickers could not be removed without damaging the sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a cherished community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those people of our society who have embraced Cast in Blue.”
She added the council would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those responsible for the vandalism.
When the sculpture was initially suggested, it received mixed reactions from the local community due to its cost and design.
Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture represents a mythical megafauna, with the creators inspired by an ancient marsupial ant-eater discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
