🔗 Share this article

A teenager from Australia has appeared in court after allegedly defacing a sizable blue sculpture of a mythical creature by applying googly eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, 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 moment of the recent event, the local council explained that surveillance video captured a individual putting fake eyes on the artwork, which locals 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 recommending her to find a legal representative before her next court date in the final month of the year.

A day after the reported event, the city leader stated that restoration to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be removed without harming the sculpture.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in 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 local government would pursue the “significant” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.

At the time the sculpture was initially suggested, it drew mixed reactions from the area residents due to its price tag and design.

Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture represents a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial discovered in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.