Young Australian Charged for Supposedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Artwork
A teenager from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after allegedly defacing a sizable blue sculpture of a legendary being by affixing googly eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, aged 19, appeared remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on that day, facing with one count of property damage.
Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the local council said that surveillance video captured a person putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which locals have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.
Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and told the court she was ill, according to media sources, with the judge advising her to secure a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in December.
The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor said that restoration to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes could not be removed without damaging the art piece.
“This wilful damage to a cherished community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor said in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those people of our society who have embraced Cast in Blue.”
She said the council would pursue the “substantial” restoration expenses from those accountable for the vandalism.
At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it drew varied responses from the local community due to its price tag and appearance.
Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an ancient anteater-like marsupial discovered in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
