Young Australian Charged for Allegedly Placing Sticker Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Artwork
A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly defacing a large art piece of a mythical creature by affixing googly eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, participated via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, facing with one count of damaging property.
In a statement at the time of the recent event, the local council said that CCTV footage captured a individual putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.
The accused made no plea and informed the court she was unwell, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate recommending her to secure a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.
A day after the alleged incident, the local mayor stated that repairs to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the stickers were impossible to be detached without harming the sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a cherished public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those members of our society who have embraced Cast in Blue.”
The mayor added the council would seek the “significant” repair costs from those responsible for the vandalism.
When the sculpture was initially suggested, it received mixed reactions from the local community due to its cost and design.
Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
