Australian Teen Charged for Allegedly Attaching Sticker Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Artwork
A young person from Australia has faced legal proceedings after allegedly defacing a large art piece of a legendary being by applying googly eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, 19 years old, participated remotely at the local court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, charged with one count of property damage.
Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the local council explained that surveillance video captured a person placing artificial eyes on the artwork, which locals have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
The accused did not enter a plea and informed the court she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the judge recommending her to find a legal representative before her next court date in the final month of the year.
The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor stated that repairs to the popular community sculpture would be expensive as the adhesive eyes could not be detached without damaging the sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a valued 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 society who have embraced Cast in Blue.”
She said the local government would pursue the “significant” restoration expenses from those accountable for the vandalism.
When the artwork was first proposed, it received varied responses from the area residents due to its cost and appearance.
Costing A$136,000 ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
