Young Australian Charged for Supposedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Artwork
A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly defacing a large art piece of a mythical creature by affixing googly eyes to it.
The 19-year-old, 19 years old, participated via phone at the local court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with a single charge of damaging property.
In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that CCTV footage captured a person placing fake eyes on the artwork, which locals have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.
The accused did not enter a plea and told the court she was unwell, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate advising her to secure a lawyer before her next court date in December.
The following day the reported event, the local mayor said that restoration to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be detached without harming the sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a cherished public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor remarked in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those members of our society who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”
She added the council would seek the “substantial” restoration expenses from those accountable for the damage.
At the time the artwork was initially suggested, it received varied responses from the local community due to its price tag and design.
Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater found in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
