🔗 Share this article

A teenager from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after allegedly defacing a large blue sculpture of a mythical creature by affixing googly eyes to it.

The 19-year-old, 19 years old, participated via phone at the local court in the state of South Australia on that day, charged with a single charge of property damage.

Officials commented at the time of the recent event, the municipal authorities said that CCTV footage captured a individual putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.

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

The following day the reported event, the local mayor stated that repairs to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be detached without harming the sculpture.

“This wilful damage to a valued public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those members of our community who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”

She added the council would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.

When the sculpture was first proposed, it drew varied responses from the area residents due to its cost and design.

Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; £68,000), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.