Young Australian Charged for Allegedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Artwork
A teenager 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.
Officials commented at the moment of the recent event, the municipal authorities explained that surveillance video captured a person putting artificial eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
The accused did not enter a plea and told the judge she was ill, according to media sources, with the magistrate recommending her to find a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in December.
The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor stated that repairs to the popular community sculpture would be costly as the adhesive eyes could not be detached without harming the art piece.
“This wilful damage to a cherished public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those members of our society who have embraced the Blue Blob.”
The mayor said the local government would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those accountable for the damage.
At the time the artwork was initially suggested, it received varied responses from the area residents due to its price tag and design.
Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
