Australian Teen Charged for Supposedly Attaching Sticker Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Artwork
A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly defacing a large art piece of a mythical creature by applying googly eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared via phone at the local court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, charged with one count of damaging property.
Officials commented at the time of the recent event, the municipal authorities said that surveillance video captured a individual putting artificial eyes on the artwork, which residents have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.
Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and informed the court she was unwell, as reported by media sources, with the judge advising her to find a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.
The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor stated that repairs to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the stickers could not be removed without damaging the sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a cherished public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in mid-September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those people of our society who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”
The mayor said the local government would seek the “significant” repair costs from those responsible for the vandalism.
When the artwork was first proposed, it received varied responses from the area residents due to its cost and design.
Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the artwork depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an ancient anteater-like marsupial found in local caves that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
