Young Australian Faces Charges for Supposedly Placing Googly Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Sculpture
A teenager from Australia has appeared in court after allegedly defacing a large art piece of a legendary being by affixing plastic eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, appeared remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on that day, charged with one count of damaging property.
Officials commented at the time of the recent event, the local council explained that surveillance video captured a individual placing artificial eyes on the artwork, which residents have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.
The accused did not enter a plea and informed the judge she was ill, as reported by media sources, with the magistrate advising her to find a legal representative before her next court date in the final month of the year.
A day after the reported event, the local mayor stated that restoration to the popular community sculpture would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be removed without damaging the art piece.
“This intentional vandalism to a valued community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those people of our community who have embraced Cast in Blue.”
She said the local government would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.
When the artwork was first proposed, it received varied responses from the local community due to its cost and appearance.
Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
