Australian Teen Charged for Supposedly Attaching Sticker Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Artwork
A teenager from Australia has appeared in court after reportedly defacing a large art piece of a mythical creature by applying googly eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared via phone at the local court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with a single charge of damaging property.
In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the local council explained that CCTV footage showed a individual putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and told the court she was unwell, as reported by news outlets, with the judge advising her to find a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in December.
The following day the reported event, the local mayor stated that repairs to the much-loved community sculpture would be costly as the stickers were impossible to be removed without harming the art piece.
“This wilful damage to a valued community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in mid-September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those members of our society who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”
The mayor added the local government would seek the “significant” restoration expenses from those responsible for the damage.
At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it received mixed reactions from the area residents due to its cost and appearance.
Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the artwork represents 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”.
