Australian Teen Charged for Allegedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Artwork
A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after allegedly vandalizing a sizable blue sculpture of a legendary being by affixing plastic eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, participated via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on Tuesday, facing with a single charge of damaging property.
In a statement at the time of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that surveillance video showed a person placing fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.
The accused did not enter a plea and told the judge she was ill, according to news outlets, with the magistrate advising her to find a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.
The following day the reported event, the local mayor stated that repairs to the much-loved community sculpture would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be detached without damaging the sculpture.
“This intentional vandalism to a valued public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those members of our community who have embraced the Blue Blob.”
She added the council would seek the “significant” repair costs from those accountable for the vandalism.
At the time the artwork was first proposed, it drew mixed reactions from the area residents due to its price tag and appearance.
Costing A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the sculpture depicts a mythical megafauna, with the creators influenced by an ancient marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
