🔗 Share this article

A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly vandalizing a large blue sculpture of a mythical creature by affixing plastic eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, participated remotely at the local court in the state of South Australia on that day, facing with a single charge of property damage.

In a statement at the moment of the recent event, the municipal authorities explained that CCTV footage captured a person placing artificial eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.

The accused did not enter a plea and told the judge she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate advising her to secure a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.

The following day the reported event, the city leader said that restoration to the much-loved community sculpture would be expensive as the adhesive eyes could not be removed without harming the sculpture.

“This intentional vandalism to a cherished public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those members of our community who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”

The mayor added the council would pursue the “significant” restoration expenses from those accountable for the damage.

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

Costing A$136,000 (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 discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.