Australian Teen Charged for Supposedly Placing Sticker Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Sculpture
A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after allegedly defacing a sizable art piece of a mythical creature by affixing googly eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, participated via phone at the local court in South Australia on that day, charged with a single charge of property damage.
In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that CCTV footage showed a person putting artificial eyes on the artwork, which locals have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
The accused did not enter a plea and informed the judge she was ill, according to news outlets, with the magistrate advising her to secure a legal representative before her next court date in the final month of the year.
The following day the alleged incident, the city leader stated that restoration to the popular community sculpture would be costly as the stickers were impossible to be removed without damaging the sculpture.
“This intentional vandalism to a cherished public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor remarked in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those people of our society who have embraced the Blue Blob.”
The mayor added the local government would seek the “significant” restoration expenses from those accountable for the vandalism.
When the sculpture was first proposed, it drew mixed reactions from the local community due to its cost and design.
Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; £68,000), the sculpture represents a mythical megafauna, with the creators influenced by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
