Young Australian Charged for Allegedly Placing Sticker Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Sculpture
A teenager from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after reportedly vandalizing a large blue sculpture of a mythical creature by affixing googly eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared remotely at the local court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, charged with one count of damaging property.
Officials commented at the time of the September incident, the municipal authorities explained that surveillance video captured a individual putting artificial eyes on the sculpture, which locals have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
The accused did not enter a plea and informed the judge she was unwell, according to media sources, with the magistrate recommending her to secure a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in December.
A day after the alleged incident, the city leader said that repairs to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be removed without damaging the sculpture.
“This intentional vandalism to a cherished community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor said in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also disappointing to those people of our community who have embraced Cast in Blue.”
She said the council would pursue the “substantial” repair costs from those accountable for the vandalism.
When the artwork was first proposed, it received varied responses from the local community due to its cost and design.
Costing 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the creators influenced by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater found in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
