Australian Teen Charged for Supposedly Attaching Sticker Eyes on ‘Cast in Blue’ Artwork
A teenager from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after allegedly defacing a sizable art piece of a legendary being by applying plastic eyes to it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on Tuesday, facing with a single charge of damaging property.
In a statement at the time of the recent event, the local council said that CCTV footage captured a person putting artificial eyes on the sculpture, which residents have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.
Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and informed the judge she was unwell, as reported by media sources, with the judge advising her to secure a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in December.
The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor said that repairs to the much-loved public artwork would be costly as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be detached without damaging the sculpture.
“This wilful damage to a valued public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor remarked in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also disappointing to those members of our society who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”
The mayor added the local government would pursue the “significant” repair costs from those accountable for the vandalism.
When the artwork was first proposed, it received varied responses from the local community due to its cost and design.
Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the sculpture depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.
