Australian Teen Faces Charges for Allegedly Attaching Sticker Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Sculpture
A teenager from Australia has faced legal proceedings 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 the state of South Australia on Tuesday, charged with one count of damaging property.
Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the local council said that surveillance video captured a person placing fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
The accused did not enter a plea and informed the court she was ill, according to news outlets, with the magistrate advising her to find a lawyer before her next court date in the final month of the year.
A day after the reported event, the city leader stated that repairs to the popular public artwork would be costly as the stickers were impossible to be removed without damaging the sculpture.
“This wilful damage 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 society who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”
The mayor added the council would pursue the “substantial” repair costs from those accountable for the vandalism.
At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it received varied responses from the local community 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 sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater found in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
