Australian Teen Faces Charges for Allegedly Placing Googly Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Artwork
A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after reportedly defacing a sizable art piece of a mythical creature by affixing googly eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, appeared via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on that day, facing with a single charge of damaging property.
Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the local council explained that surveillance video showed a person placing fake eyes on the artwork, which locals have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.
Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and informed the judge she was unwell, as reported by media sources, with the judge advising her to secure a legal representative 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 community sculpture would be costly as the stickers were impossible to be removed without harming the sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a valued public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those members of our society who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”
She said the local government would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.
At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it drew varied responses from the area residents due to its cost and appearance.
Costing A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient marsupial ant-eater discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.