Australian Teen Faces Charges for Supposedly Placing Sticker Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Sculpture
A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly vandalizing a large blue sculpture of a legendary being by affixing googly eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared via phone at the local court in the state of South Australia on that day, facing with one count of property damage.
In a statement at the time of the recent event, the municipal authorities explained that CCTV footage captured a person putting artificial eyes on the sculpture, which locals have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
The accused did not enter a plea and informed the judge she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the judge recommending her to find a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.
The following day the reported event, the city leader stated that repairs to the much-loved public artwork would be costly as the stickers could not be removed without harming the art piece.
“This wilful damage to a valued community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in mid-September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those people of our society who have embraced the Blue Blob.”
She added the local government would pursue the “substantial” repair costs from those responsible 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.
Costing 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an ancient marsupial ant-eater found in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
