Young Australian Faces Charges for Allegedly Placing Googly Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Sculpture
A teenager from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly defacing a sizable art piece of a legendary being by affixing plastic eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, participated remotely at the local court in South Australia on that day, charged with a single charge of property damage.
Officials commented at the moment of the recent event, the municipal authorities said that CCTV footage captured a individual putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which locals have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.
Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and told the court she was ill, according to news outlets, with the magistrate advising her to secure a legal representative before her next court date in December.
A day after the alleged incident, the city leader stated that restoration to the popular community sculpture would be expensive as the stickers were impossible to be removed without harming the sculpture.
“This intentional vandalism to a valued community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those members of our society who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”
She added the council would seek the “substantial” restoration expenses from those accountable for the vandalism.
When the sculpture was first proposed, it received mixed reactions from the local community due to its cost and design.
Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the artwork depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
