Young Australian Faces Charges for Supposedly Placing Sticker Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Artwork
A teenager from Australia has appeared in court after reportedly vandalizing a large blue sculpture of a mythical creature by affixing plastic eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, participated remotely at the local court in South Australia on that day, charged with one count of property damage.
Officials commented at the time of the September incident, the local council said that surveillance video showed a individual placing fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.
The accused did not enter a plea and told the court she was unwell, according to 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 reported event, the city leader stated that restoration to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the stickers could not be removed without damaging the sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a valued community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those members of our community who have embraced the Blue Blob.”
The mayor said the local government would seek the “significant” restoration expenses from those responsible for the vandalism.
When the artwork was first proposed, it received mixed reactions from the local community due to its price tag 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 ancient marsupial ant-eater discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
