Australian Teen Faces Charges for Supposedly Attaching Sticker Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Sculpture
A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after reportedly defacing a sizable art piece of a legendary being by applying googly eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, participated remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on that day, charged with a single charge of damaging property.
In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that surveillance video showed a individual placing artificial eyes on the artwork, which residents have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.
The accused made no plea and told the court she was ill, according to news outlets, with the judge advising her to find a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in December.
The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor said that restoration to the popular community sculpture would be expensive as the stickers could not be removed without harming the sculpture.
“This intentional vandalism to a valued public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in mid-September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those people of our society who have embraced Cast in Blue.”
She said the council would pursue the “significant” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.
When the sculpture was initially suggested, it drew varied responses from the local community due to its price tag and design.
Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork represents a legendary giant animal, with the creators influenced by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in local caves that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
