Australian Teen Charged for Supposedly Attaching Sticker Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Artwork
A teenager from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly defacing a large art piece of a legendary being by applying plastic eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, participated remotely at the local court in the state of South Australia on that day, charged with one count of damaging property.
In a statement at the time of the September incident, the local council explained that surveillance video captured a person putting artificial eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.
The accused did not enter a plea and informed the judge she was unwell, as reported by news outlets, with the judge advising her to find a legal representative before her next court date in the final month of the year.
The following day the reported event, the city leader said that restoration to the much-loved community sculpture would be expensive as the adhesive eyes could not be detached without harming the sculpture.
“This intentional vandalism to a valued public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those people of our society who have embraced the Blue Blob.”
The mayor added the local government would seek the “substantial” restoration expenses from those responsible for the damage.
When the artwork was first proposed, it received mixed reactions from the local community due to its cost and appearance.
Priced at A$136,000 ($89,000; £68,000), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial found in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
