Young Australian Charged for Supposedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Sculpture

A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after reportedly defacing a sizable blue sculpture of a mythical creature by affixing googly eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, appeared via phone at the local court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, charged with a single charge of property damage.

Officials commented at the moment of the recent event, the local council said that CCTV footage captured a person putting fake eyes on the artwork, which locals have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.

The accused did not enter a plea and informed the judge she was ill, according to news outlets, with the magistrate recommending her to secure a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in December.

A day after the alleged incident, the city leader said that restoration to the popular community sculpture would be expensive as the adhesive eyes could not be removed without damaging the sculpture.

“This wilful damage to a valued community art is inappropriate 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 embraced the Blue Blob.”

She said the council would seek the “significant” restoration expenses from those responsible for the damage.

At the time the artwork was first proposed, it drew varied responses from the local community due to its cost and design.

Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the artwork represents a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.