Australian Teen Charged for Supposedly Placing Googly Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ 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 affixing plastic eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, 19 years old, appeared remotely at the local court in South Australia on Tuesday, facing with a single charge of damaging property.
Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities explained that surveillance video captured a person putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
The accused made no plea and informed the court she was ill, according to news outlets, with the magistrate advising her to find a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.
A day after the alleged incident, the city leader said that repairs to the much-loved community sculpture would be expensive as the stickers were impossible to be detached without harming the art piece.
“This intentional vandalism to a cherished community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor remarked in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those people of our society who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”
She added the council would pursue the “significant” repair costs from those accountable for the damage.
When the sculpture was first proposed, it received varied responses from the local community due to its cost and design.
Costing 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; £68,000), the artwork represents a mythical megafauna, with the creators influenced by an ancient anteater-like marsupial discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
