Australian Teen Charged for Allegedly Placing Googly Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Artwork
A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after allegedly vandalizing a sizable blue sculpture of a mythical creature by affixing googly eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, participated via phone at the local court in the state of South Australia on that day, facing with a single charge of property damage.
Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the local council said that CCTV footage showed a person putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.
Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and informed the judge she was unwell, according to media sources, with the judge recommending 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 said that restoration to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the stickers were impossible to be removed without damaging the art piece.
“This wilful damage to a cherished community art is inappropriate 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.”
The mayor added the council would seek the “substantial” restoration expenses from those accountable for the vandalism.
When the artwork was initially suggested, it drew varied responses from the local community due to its price tag and design.
Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.