Australian Teen Charged for Supposedly Placing Googly Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Sculpture
A teenager from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly vandalizing a sizable art piece of a mythical creature by applying googly eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, participated via phone at the local court in South Australia on that day, charged with a single charge of property damage.
Officials commented at the time of the September incident, the local council said that surveillance video captured a person putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.
Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and told the judge she was unwell, as reported by news outlets, with the judge recommending her to find a legal representative before her next court date in the final month of the year.
A day after the alleged incident, the local mayor stated that repairs to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be detached without harming the sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a valued 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 embraced Cast in Blue.”
She said the local government would seek the “significant” repair costs from those accountable for the vandalism.
When the sculpture was first proposed, it received mixed reactions from the local community due to its price tag and appearance.
Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the artwork depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater found in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
