🔗 Share this article

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

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

Officials commented at the time of the September incident, the local council said that surveillance video showed a individual placing fake eyes on the sculpture, which locals have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.

The accused did not enter a plea and informed the judge she was unwell, according to news outlets, with the judge recommending her to secure a lawyer before her next court date in the final month of the year.

A day after the alleged incident, the city leader said that restoration to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes could not be detached without damaging the art piece.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor said in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those people of our society who have embraced the Blue Blob.”

The mayor said the local government would seek the “significant” repair costs from those accountable for the vandalism.

When the sculpture was initially suggested, it received mixed reactions from the local community due to its cost and appearance.

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