Young Australian Faces Charges for Supposedly Placing Googly Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Sculpture
A young person from Australia has appeared in court 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 via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, charged with a single charge of property damage.
In a statement at the time of the September incident, the local council said that CCTV footage captured a individual putting artificial eyes on the sculpture, which residents have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.
The accused did not enter a plea and informed the judge she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate advising her to secure a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.
A day after the reported event, the city leader said that repairs to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the stickers could not be removed without damaging the sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a cherished public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is pricey - it is also disappointing to those people of our society who have embraced the Blue Blob.”
She said the local government would pursue the “substantial” repair costs from those responsible for the vandalism.
At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it drew mixed reactions from the local community due to its cost and appearance.
Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the sculpture depicts a legendary giant animal, with the creators inspired by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial discovered in local caves that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
