Australian Teen Charged for Supposedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Artwork
A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly defacing a large blue sculpture of a mythical creature by applying googly eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, participated via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on Tuesday, facing with a single charge of property damage.
Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that surveillance video showed a individual placing artificial eyes on the artwork, which residents have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.
Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and told the court she was ill, according to media sources, with the magistrate advising her to find a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in December.
A day after the alleged incident, the city leader stated that repairs to the much-loved community sculpture would be costly as the adhesive eyes could not be removed without damaging the art piece.
“This wilful damage to a valued public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those members of our society who have embraced Cast in Blue.”
The mayor added the council would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those responsible for the vandalism.
At the time the sculpture was initially suggested, it drew mixed reactions from the local community due to its cost and design.
Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
