Australian Teen Faces Charges for Allegedly Placing Googly Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Sculpture

A teenager from Australia has appeared in court after reportedly defacing a large art piece of a legendary being by applying googly eyes to it.

The 19-year-old, aged 19, participated remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in the state of South Australia on that day, charged with a single charge of damaging property.

In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the local council explained that surveillance video captured a individual placing fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.

Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and informed the court she was ill, according to news outlets, with the judge advising her to secure a legal representative before her next court date 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 expensive as the adhesive eyes could not be detached without harming the art piece.

“This intentional vandalism to a cherished community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those people of our society who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”

She added the council would pursue the “substantial” repair costs from those accountable for the vandalism.

When the sculpture was first proposed, it received mixed reactions from the area residents due to its cost and appearance.

Priced at A$136,000 ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial found in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.