Australian Teen Charged for Supposedly Placing Googly Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Artwork
A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after allegedly defacing a sizable blue sculpture of a legendary being by affixing plastic eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, participated remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on Tuesday, facing with a single charge of property damage.
Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that surveillance video captured a individual placing artificial eyes on the artwork, which locals have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.
Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and told the court she was unwell, as reported by media sources, with the magistrate recommending 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 were impossible to be detached without harming the sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a cherished public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those people of our society who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”
She added the local government would seek the “substantial” restoration expenses from those accountable for the vandalism.
At the time the sculpture was initially suggested, it received varied responses from the area residents due to its price tag and appearance.
Costing A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in local caves that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
