Young Australian Charged for Allegedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Sculpture
A young person from Australia has faced legal proceedings after allegedly vandalizing a large art piece of a legendary being by affixing plastic eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared remotely at the local court in South Australia on Tuesday, facing with one count of damaging property.
In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the local council said that CCTV footage captured a individual putting fake eyes on the artwork, which residents have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and told the judge she was ill, as reported by media sources, 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 reported event, the local mayor stated that restoration to the much-loved community sculpture would be costly as the stickers could not be removed without damaging the art piece.
“This wilful damage to a valued community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those people of our community who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”
The mayor added the council would seek the “substantial” restoration expenses from those accountable for the damage.
When the artwork was initially suggested, it received varied responses from the area residents due to its price tag and design.
Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient anteater-like marsupial discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
