A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after allegedly defacing a large blue sculpture of a legendary being by applying plastic eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, participated via phone at the local court in the state of South Australia on that day, facing with a single charge of damaging property.
In a statement at the time of the recent event, the municipal authorities said that surveillance video captured a individual placing fake eyes on the sculpture, which locals have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.
The accused made no plea and told the court she was ill, according to media sources, with the judge advising her to find a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.
The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor stated that repairs to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the stickers were impossible to be detached without harming the sculpture.
“This intentional vandalism to a cherished community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those people of our society who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”
She said the local government would pursue the “significant” restoration expenses from those responsible for the vandalism.
When the sculpture was first proposed, it received mixed reactions from the area residents due to its price tag and design.
Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the sculpture represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient marsupial ant-eater found in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
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