Australian Teen Faces Charges for Allegedly Attaching Sticker Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Artwork
A teenager from Australia 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, appeared remotely at the local court in the state of South Australia on that day, facing with one count of damaging property.
Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the local council said that CCTV footage captured a individual placing fake 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 media sources, with the judge recommending her to secure a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.
A day after the reported event, the local mayor stated that restoration to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the stickers could not be removed without harming the sculpture.
“This intentional vandalism to a cherished 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 the Blue Blob.”
The mayor added the council would pursue the “substantial” repair costs from those accountable for the damage.
At the time the sculpture was first proposed, 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 depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an ancient marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
