Australian Teen Faces Charges for Allegedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Sculpture
A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after reportedly defacing a sizable blue sculpture of a mythical creature by affixing plastic eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, participated via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in the state of South Australia on that day, charged with one count of property damage.
In a statement at the time of the September incident, the local council said that surveillance video captured a person putting artificial eyes on the artwork, which residents have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.
The accused did not enter a plea and told the judge she was unwell, according to news outlets, with the judge advising her to secure a lawyer before her next court date in December.
A day after the reported event, the local mayor stated that repairs to the much-loved community sculpture would be expensive as the stickers could not be removed without damaging the sculpture.
“This intentional vandalism to a cherished public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those people of our community who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”
She added the local government would pursue the “substantial” restoration expenses from those accountable for the vandalism.
At the time the sculpture was initially suggested, it received mixed reactions from the local community due to its price tag and appearance.
Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
