🔗 Share this article

A young person from Australia has appeared in court after allegedly vandalizing a large art piece of a mythical creature by affixing googly eyes to it.

The 19-year-old, 19 years old, participated remotely at the local court in South Australia on Tuesday, facing with one count of damaging property.

Officials commented at the time of the recent event, the local council said that CCTV footage captured a individual placing fake eyes on the artwork, which residents have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.

Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and informed the judge she was ill, according to media sources, with the magistrate advising her to secure a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.

A day after the alleged incident, the city leader said that restoration to the popular community sculpture would be costly as the stickers were impossible to be removed without damaging the sculpture.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor said in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those members of our society who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”

She said the local government would pursue the “substantial” restoration expenses from those responsible for the vandalism.

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

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