Young Australian Charged for Supposedly Placing Sticker Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Sculpture

A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after reportedly defacing a sizable art piece of a mythical creature by applying googly eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, participated via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with a single charge of property damage.

Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that CCTV footage captured a person putting artificial eyes on the sculpture, which locals have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.

The accused made no plea and told the court she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the judge advising her to find a legal representative before her next court date in December.

The following day the alleged incident, the city leader said that repairs to the much-loved public artwork would be costly as the stickers could not be removed without harming the art piece.

“This wilful damage to a valued public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is pricey - it is also disappointing to those members of our community who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”

She added the local government would seek the “substantial” restoration expenses from those accountable for the vandalism.

At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it drew varied responses from the area residents due to its cost and appearance.

Costing 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient marsupial ant-eater found in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.