Young Australian Charged for Supposedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Artwork
A teenager from Australia has appeared in court after reportedly defacing a large blue sculpture of a legendary being by applying googly eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, appeared remotely at the local court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, charged with one count of property damage.
In a statement at the time of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that surveillance video captured a person putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.
Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and informed the court she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate recommending her to secure a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in December.
The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor stated that restoration to the popular community sculpture would be costly as the stickers could not be removed without damaging the sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a cherished community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is pricey - it is also disappointing to those people of our society who have embraced the Blue Blob.”
The mayor said the council would pursue the “substantial” repair costs from those accountable for the damage.
When the artwork was initially suggested, it drew varied responses from the area residents due to its cost and design.
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 prehistoric marsupial ant-eater found in local caves that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
