Australian Teen Faces Charges for Supposedly Attaching Sticker Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Artwork
A young person from Australia has appeared in court after reportedly vandalizing a sizable blue sculpture of a legendary being by applying googly eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, participated via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in the state of South Australia on that day, facing with one count of property damage.
Officials commented at the time of the September incident, the municipal authorities explained that surveillance video showed a person putting artificial eyes on the artwork, which locals have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.
Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and told the judge she was ill, according to news outlets, with the judge advising her to find a legal representative before her upcoming hearing 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 stickers were impossible to be detached without harming the art piece.
“This wilful damage to a valued community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor said in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those members of our society who have embraced the Blue Blob.”
She said the council would pursue the “substantial” restoration expenses from those accountable for the vandalism.
At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it drew mixed reactions from the local community due to its price tag and design.
Costing 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture represents a mythical megafauna, with the creators inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater found in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
