Australian Teen Faces Charges for Supposedly Placing Sticker Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Sculpture
A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after reportedly defacing a large art piece of a legendary being by affixing googly eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, participated remotely at the local court in South Australia on that day, facing with a single charge of damaging property.
In a statement at the time of the September incident, the local council said that CCTV footage captured a individual putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which locals have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
The accused made no plea and informed the judge she was unwell, as reported by media sources, with the magistrate recommending her to secure a lawyer before her next court date in the final month of the year.
A day after the reported event, the city leader said that restoration to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the stickers could not be removed without damaging the art piece.
“This intentional vandalism to a valued public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in mid-September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those people of our society who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”
She said the council would pursue the “substantial” repair costs from those accountable for the damage.
When the artwork was initially suggested, it drew mixed reactions from the local community due to its price tag and design.
Costing A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an ancient marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.