Young Australian Faces Charges for Supposedly Attaching Sticker Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Sculpture
A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly defacing a sizable art piece of a mythical creature by affixing plastic eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, participated remotely at the local court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, facing with one count of damaging property.
In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that CCTV footage showed a individual putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which locals have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.
The accused did not enter a plea and informed the judge she was ill, as reported by media sources, with the judge recommending her to secure a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in December.
A day after the reported event, the city leader stated that repairs to the popular community sculpture would be costly as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be removed without harming the art piece.
“This wilful damage to a cherished community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor said in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those members of our society who have embraced the Blue Blob.”
She added the local government would seek the “significant” repair costs from those accountable for the vandalism.
At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it drew varied responses from the local community due to its cost and appearance.
Costing A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient anteater-like marsupial found in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
