Australian Teen Faces Charges for Supposedly Placing Sticker Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Sculpture
A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after reportedly vandalizing a large blue sculpture of a mythical creature by applying googly eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, participated via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on Tuesday, facing with one count of property damage.
Officials commented at the time 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 did not enter a plea and informed the court she was unwell, according to news outlets, with the judge recommending her to find a lawyer before her next court date in December.
The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor stated that restoration to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the stickers could not be removed without harming the art piece.
“This intentional vandalism to a valued community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those members of our community who have embraced the Blue Blob.”
She said the local government would seek the “significant” restoration expenses from those accountable for the vandalism.
When the sculpture was first proposed, it received varied responses from the local community due to its cost and design.
Priced at A$136,000 ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient anteater-like marsupial found in local caves that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
