Australian Teen Charged for Allegedly Placing Sticker Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Sculpture
A teenager from Australia has faced legal proceedings after allegedly defacing a large blue sculpture of a legendary being by affixing plastic eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on Tuesday, facing with a single charge of damaging property.
In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that CCTV footage showed a person placing artificial eyes on the artwork, which locals have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.
Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and informed the court she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate recommending her to find a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.
A day after the reported event, 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 sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a cherished public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is pricey - 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” repair costs from those responsible for the vandalism.
When the sculpture was initially suggested, it received varied responses from the area residents due to its cost and appearance.
Costing A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient anteater-like marsupial discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
