Young Australian Charged for Supposedly Placing Sticker Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Sculpture
A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after allegedly defacing a large art piece of a legendary being by affixing googly eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, appeared remotely at the local court in the state of South Australia on that day, facing with a single charge of property damage.
In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that surveillance video showed a person placing artificial eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.
The accused made no plea and told the court she was unwell, according to media sources, with the magistrate recommending her to find a lawyer before her next court date in December.
The following day the alleged incident, the city leader said that repairs to the much-loved 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,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in mid-September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those people of our community who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”
She added the council would seek the “substantial” restoration expenses from those accountable for the damage.
At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it drew varied responses from the local community due to its cost and design.
Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an ancient anteater-like marsupial discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
