Young Australian Charged for Supposedly Attaching Sticker Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Artwork
A young person from Australia has faced legal proceedings after reportedly defacing a sizable blue sculpture of a legendary being by affixing googly eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared 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 time of the September incident, the local council explained that surveillance video showed a person placing artificial eyes on the sculpture, which locals have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
The accused made no plea and told the court she was ill, according to news outlets, with the judge advising her to find a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in December.
The following day the alleged incident, the city leader stated that repairs to the popular community sculpture would be expensive as the stickers could not be removed without harming the sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a valued public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor remarked in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also disappointing to those people of our society who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”
The mayor added the local government would seek the “substantial” restoration expenses from those accountable for the vandalism.
At the time the artwork was first proposed, it received mixed reactions from the local community due to its price tag and appearance.
Costing A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient marsupial ant-eater discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
