🔗 Share this article

A teenager from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after allegedly vandalizing a large blue sculpture of a legendary being by affixing googly eyes to it.

The 19-year-old, aged 19, appeared remotely at the local court in the state of South Australia on that day, charged with a single charge of damaging property.

Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that surveillance video captured a individual placing artificial eyes on the artwork, which locals have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.

Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and told the court she was ill, according to media sources, with the magistrate advising her to secure a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in December.

A day after the alleged incident, the city leader stated that restoration to the much-loved public artwork would be costly as the adhesive eyes could not be removed without damaging the sculpture.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those people of our society who have embraced Cast in Blue.”

She added the council would pursue the “substantial” restoration expenses from those responsible for the damage.

When the sculpture was first proposed, it drew varied responses from the local community due to its cost and appearance.

Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an ancient anteater-like marsupial discovered in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.