Young Australian Charged for Supposedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Artwork
A young person from Australia has faced legal proceedings after allegedly vandalizing a sizable art piece of a legendary being by applying plastic eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, participated remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates 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 explained that CCTV footage showed a person placing fake eyes on the artwork, which residents have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.
Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and informed the court she was ill, as reported by media sources, with the magistrate recommending her to secure a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in December.
A day after the reported event, the city leader stated that repairs to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be detached without harming the art piece.
“This wilful damage to a valued public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those members of our community who have embraced Cast in Blue.”
She added the local government would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those responsible for the vandalism.
At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it drew mixed reactions from the local community due to its cost and appearance.
Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars ($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 discovered in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
