🔗 Share this article

A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after reportedly defacing a large art piece of a mythical creature by applying googly eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, appeared remotely at the local court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with a single charge of damaging property.

Officials commented at the time of the September incident, the local council explained that CCTV footage captured a individual placing fake eyes on the artwork, which locals have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.

Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and told the judge she was unwell, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate recommending her to secure a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.

The following day the reported event, the city leader stated that repairs to the much-loved community sculpture would be costly as the stickers could not be detached without harming the art piece.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor said in mid-September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those members of our society who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”

The mayor said the council would pursue the “substantial” restoration expenses from those accountable for the vandalism.

At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it received mixed reactions from the area residents due to its cost and design.

Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient marsupial ant-eater found in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.