Young Australian Charged for Supposedly Attaching Sticker Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Artwork
A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after allegedly vandalizing a sizable art piece of a legendary being by applying plastic eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, participated via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, facing with a single charge of property damage.
Officials commented at the moment of the recent event, the local council said that surveillance video captured a person putting artificial eyes on the sculpture, which locals have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.
The accused did not enter a plea and told the court she was unwell, according to news outlets, with the judge advising her to secure a lawyer before her next court date in the final month of the year.
The following day the reported event, the local mayor said that repairs to the popular public artwork would be costly as the adhesive eyes could not be removed without damaging the art piece.
“This intentional vandalism to a cherished public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in mid-September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those members of our society who have embraced the Blue Blob.”
She added the council would pursue the “substantial” restoration expenses from those responsible for the damage.
At the time the artwork was first proposed, it received varied responses from the area residents due to its price tag and design.
Costing 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an ancient anteater-like marsupial discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
