Young Australian Faces Charges for Supposedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Sculpture
A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after reportedly vandalizing a sizable art piece of a legendary being by applying plastic eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, appeared remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, charged with one count of damaging property.
In a statement at the moment of the recent event, the local council explained that surveillance video captured a individual putting fake eyes on the artwork, which residents have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and informed the judge she was ill, according to news outlets, with the judge recommending her to secure a legal representative before her next court date in the final month of the year.
A day after the reported event, the city leader said that repairs to the popular community sculpture would be expensive as the stickers could not be removed without damaging the sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a valued public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in 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.”
The mayor added the local government would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those accountable for the vandalism.
When the sculpture was first proposed, it received varied responses from the local community due to its price tag and design.
Costing A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork represents a legendary giant animal, with the creators inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
