Australian Teen Charged for Allegedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Sculpture
A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after allegedly defacing a sizable blue sculpture of a mythical creature by applying plastic eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, appeared via phone at the local court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with a single charge of damaging property.
Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that CCTV footage captured a individual putting fake eyes on the artwork, which residents have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.
Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and told the judge she was ill, according to media sources, with the magistrate advising her to secure a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in December.
A day after the reported event, the city leader said that restoration to the popular community sculpture would be costly as the stickers were impossible to be detached without harming the sculpture.
“This intentional vandalism to a valued public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor remarked in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those people of our community who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”
She said the council would pursue the “substantial” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.
At the time the artwork was first proposed, it received varied responses from the local community due to its price tag and design.
Costing A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial found in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
