Australian Teen Charged for Allegedly Placing Googly Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Artwork
A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly vandalizing a sizable art piece of a legendary being by applying plastic eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, participated remotely at the local court in the state of South Australia on that day, charged with a single charge of property damage.
Officials commented at the time of the recent event, the local council said that CCTV footage captured a person placing artificial eyes on the artwork, which locals have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
The accused did not enter a plea and informed the court she was unwell, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate recommending her to secure a legal representative before her next court date in December.
A day after the reported event, the city leader said that repairs to the much-loved community sculpture would be expensive as the stickers could not be detached without damaging the art piece.
“This wilful damage to a valued community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in mid-September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those people of our society who have embraced Cast in Blue.”
The mayor added the local government would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those accountable for the damage.
When the artwork was initially suggested, it drew mixed reactions from the area residents due to its price tag and design.
Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial discovered in local caves that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
