Young Australian Charged for Supposedly Attaching Sticker Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Artwork
A teenager from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after allegedly defacing a large blue sculpture of a legendary being by applying plastic eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, 19 years old, participated via phone at the local court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with one count of damaging property.
In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the local council explained that surveillance video captured a person placing fake eyes on the artwork, which residents have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and informed the judge she was unwell, as reported by media sources, with the judge advising her to secure a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.
The following day the reported event, the city leader said that repairs to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the stickers could not be detached without harming the art piece.
“This wilful damage to a cherished community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those members of our community who have embraced the Blue Blob.”
The mayor added the council would pursue the “significant” repair costs from those accountable for the vandalism.
When the sculpture was initially suggested, it received mixed reactions from the local community due to its price tag and design.
Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the artwork represents a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater found in local caves that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
