Young Australian Faces Charges for Supposedly Placing Sticker Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Artwork
A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after allegedly defacing a sizable art piece of a mythical creature by applying plastic eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared via phone at the local court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with one count of property damage.
In a statement at the time of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that CCTV footage showed a person putting fake eyes on the artwork, which locals have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.
The accused made no plea and informed the judge she was unwell, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate recommending her to secure a lawyer before her next court date in the final month of the year.
The following day the reported event, the city leader said that restoration to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the stickers were impossible to be removed without harming the art piece.
“This wilful damage to a valued public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor said in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is pricey - it is also disappointing to those members of our community who have embraced the Blue Blob.”
She added the council would seek the “substantial” restoration expenses from those accountable for the damage.
When the artwork was first proposed, it drew varied responses from the area residents due to its cost and appearance.
Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture represents a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
