Australian Teen Faces Charges for Supposedly Placing Googly Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Artwork
A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after allegedly defacing a sizable art piece of a mythical creature by affixing googly eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, participated via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on that day, charged with a single charge of damaging property.
In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities explained that surveillance video captured a individual putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.
The accused did not enter a plea and told the judge she was ill, as reported by media sources, with the judge advising her to find a legal representative before her next court date in the final month of the year.
The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor stated that restoration to the popular community sculpture would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be removed without damaging the sculpture.
“This intentional vandalism to a cherished public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those members of our society who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”
She said the local government would pursue the “substantial” restoration expenses from those accountable for the damage.
At the time the artwork was first proposed, it drew varied responses from the area residents due to its price tag and design.
Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the sculpture depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater found in local caves that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.