Australian Teen Faces Charges for Allegedly Placing Googly Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Artwork
A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after allegedly vandalizing a large blue sculpture of a mythical creature by applying plastic eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, participated remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, facing with one count of damaging property.
In a statement at the time of the September incident, the local council said that surveillance video captured a person putting artificial eyes on the sculpture, which locals have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.
The accused made no plea and informed the judge she was unwell, as reported by media sources, with the judge recommending her to find a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in December.
A day after the reported event, the local mayor said that restoration to the popular community sculpture would be costly as the stickers could not be removed without harming the art piece.
“This intentional vandalism to a cherished public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor said in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those people of our community who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”
She said the local government would pursue the “significant” restoration expenses from those accountable for the vandalism.
At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it received varied responses from the area residents due to its cost and appearance.
Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater found in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
