Australian Teen Charged for Supposedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Sculpture
A teenager from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after reportedly vandalizing a large blue sculpture of a legendary being by affixing plastic eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, appeared remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with a single charge of property damage.
In a statement at the time of the recent event, the municipal authorities explained that CCTV footage showed a individual placing artificial eyes on the artwork, which residents have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.
Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and told the court she was unwell, as reported by media sources, with the judge advising her to secure a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.
The following day the alleged incident, the city leader said that repairs to the popular community sculpture would be costly as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be removed without damaging the sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a cherished community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those people of our society who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”
The mayor added the local government would seek the “significant” repair costs from those responsible for the vandalism.
When the artwork was initially suggested, it received varied responses from the local community due to its price tag and appearance.
Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
