🔗 Share this article

A young person from Australia has appeared in court after allegedly vandalizing a sizable blue sculpture of a legendary being by affixing googly eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, participated remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in the state of South Australia on that day, facing with one count of property damage.

Officials commented at the time of the recent event, the local council explained that surveillance video captured a individual putting artificial eyes on the artwork, which locals have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.

The accused made no plea and informed the court she was unwell, according to news outlets, with the judge advising her to secure a lawyer before her next court date in December.

The following day the alleged incident, the city leader stated that repairs to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the stickers were impossible to be detached without damaging the sculpture.

“This wilful damage to a valued public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in mid-September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those people of our community who have embraced the Blue Blob.”

The mayor said the local government would seek the “substantial” restoration expenses from those accountable for the damage.

When the sculpture was first proposed, it received mixed reactions from the local community due to its price tag and design.

Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture depicts a legendary giant animal, with the creators influenced by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.