Young Australian Charged for Supposedly Placing Sticker Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Artwork
A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after allegedly defacing a sizable blue sculpture of a legendary being by affixing googly eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, appeared via phone at the local court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with one count of property damage.
Officials commented at the moment of the recent event, the municipal authorities said that CCTV footage showed a person placing artificial eyes on the sculpture, which residents have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.
Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and informed the judge she was unwell, as reported by media sources, with the magistrate recommending her to find a legal representative before her next court date in the final month of the year.
A day after the alleged incident, the local mayor stated that repairs to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the stickers were impossible to be removed without harming the art piece.
“This intentional vandalism to a cherished community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those people of our community who have embraced Cast in Blue.”
The mayor added the council would seek the “significant” repair costs from those accountable for the damage.
When the sculpture was initially suggested, it drew varied responses from the area residents due to its price tag and design.
Costing 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial found in local caves that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
