🔗 Share this article

A young person from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after reportedly vandalizing a sizable blue sculpture of a legendary being by applying plastic eyes to it.

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

Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the local council explained that CCTV footage showed a individual placing fake eyes on the sculpture, which locals have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.

Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and told the court she was unwell, according to news outlets, with the judge recommending her to secure a legal representative before her next court date in the final month of the year.

A day after the reported event, the city leader said that repairs to the much-loved community sculpture would be expensive as the stickers were impossible to be detached without damaging the art piece.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor remarked in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those people of our society who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”

She added the council would pursue the “substantial” repair costs from those accountable for the damage.

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

Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the sculpture represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.