🔗 Share this article

A young person from Australia has faced legal proceedings after reportedly vandalizing a sizable art piece of a mythical creature by applying googly eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, participated via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on that day, charged with one count of damaging property.

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

The accused made no plea and informed the judge she was ill, according to news outlets, with the judge advising her to find a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in December.

The following day the reported event, the local mayor said that repairs to the popular community sculpture would be costly as the stickers could not be removed without harming the art piece.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those members of our society who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”

The mayor said the council would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.

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

Costing 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork represents a mythical megafauna, with the creators influenced by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.