Australian Teen Charged for Allegedly Attaching Sticker Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Sculpture

A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after allegedly defacing a sizable blue sculpture of a legendary being by applying plastic eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, participated via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on that day, charged with one count of property damage.

Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that surveillance video showed a individual placing fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.

The accused made no plea and told the court she was unwell, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate advising her to secure a legal representative before her next court date in the final month of the year.

The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor stated that repairs to the popular community sculpture would be expensive as the stickers could not be removed without damaging the art piece.

“This intentional vandalism to a cherished public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also disappointing to those people of our community who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”

The mayor said the local government would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.

At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it received mixed reactions from the area residents due to its cost and appearance.

Costing A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the sculpture represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial discovered in local caves that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.