🔗 Share this article

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

Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, appeared remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with a single charge of damaging property.

In a statement at the time of the recent event, the municipal authorities said that CCTV footage captured a individual putting fake eyes on the artwork, which locals have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.

The accused made no plea and told the judge she was ill, as reported by media sources, with the judge recommending her to secure a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in December.

The following day the alleged incident, the city leader stated that repairs to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes could not be removed without harming the sculpture.

“This wilful damage to a cherished community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those people of our community who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”

She added the local government would pursue the “significant” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.

When the artwork was first proposed, it received mixed reactions from the area residents due to its price tag and appearance.

Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork represents a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater found in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.