Australian Teen Charged for Allegedly Attaching Sticker Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Sculpture
A teenager from Australia has faced legal proceedings after allegedly defacing a sizable art piece of a mythical creature by affixing plastic eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, participated via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, facing with a single charge of property damage.
In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that CCTV footage captured a person placing artificial eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.
Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and informed the court she was ill, according to news outlets, with the judge recommending her to find a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.
The following day the reported event, the local mayor stated that repairs to the much-loved community sculpture would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be removed without damaging the sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a cherished community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in mid-September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also disappointing to those people of our society who have embraced Cast in Blue.”
She said the council would pursue the “substantial” repair costs from those accountable for the vandalism.
At the time the artwork was initially suggested, it received varied responses from the local community due to its cost and appearance.
Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the sculpture represents a mythical megafauna, with the creators influenced by an ancient anteater-like marsupial discovered in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.
