Australian Teen Charged for Supposedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Artwork
A young person from Australia has appeared in court after allegedly vandalizing a large art piece of a legendary being by applying googly eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared remotely at the local court in South Australia on that day, charged with one count of property damage.
Officials commented at the time of the recent event, the local council said that CCTV footage captured a individual putting artificial eyes on the artwork, which locals have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
The accused made no plea and informed the court she was unwell, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate recommending her to find a lawyer before her next court date in the final month of the year.
The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor said that repairs to the much-loved community sculpture would be expensive as the adhesive eyes could not be removed without damaging the sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a valued community art is unacceptable 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 seek the “substantial” restoration expenses from those responsible for the damage.
At the time the sculpture was initially suggested, it received mixed reactions from the area residents due to its cost and appearance.
Costing 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial found in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
