Australian Teen Charged for Supposedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Artwork
A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly vandalizing a large blue sculpture of a legendary being by applying plastic eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, participated remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with a single charge of damaging property.
Officials commented at the time of the recent event, the municipal authorities said that surveillance video captured a person placing fake eyes on the sculpture, which locals have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
The accused did not enter a plea and told the court she was ill, according to media sources, with the magistrate advising her to find a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.
A day after the reported event, the local mayor said that restoration to the much-loved community sculpture would be expensive as the stickers were impossible to be removed without harming the art piece.
“This intentional vandalism 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 disappointing to those people of our society who have embraced Cast in Blue.”
The mayor said the council would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.
At the time the sculpture was initially suggested, it drew varied responses from the local community due to its cost and appearance.
Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the sculpture depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater found in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
