Australian Teen Charged for Allegedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Artwork

A teenager from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly defacing a large art piece of a legendary being by affixing googly eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared via phone at the local court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, charged with a single charge of property damage.

Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the local council said that surveillance video showed a individual putting artificial eyes on the artwork, which residents have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.

Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and told the judge she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the judge recommending her to find a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.

The following day the reported event, the local mayor said that restoration to the popular community sculpture would be costly as the stickers were impossible to be detached without harming the sculpture.

“This wilful damage to a cherished public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those people of our community who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”

She added the council would pursue the “significant” repair costs from those accountable for the damage.

At the time the sculpture was initially suggested, it received mixed reactions from the local community due to its cost and design.

Costing A$136,000 ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient marsupial ant-eater found in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.