🔗 Share this article

A young person from Australia has appeared in court after reportedly defacing a large blue sculpture of a mythical creature by applying plastic eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, participated via phone at the local court in South Australia on Tuesday, facing with one count of property damage.

Officials commented at the moment of the recent event, the local council explained that surveillance video captured a individual putting artificial eyes on the artwork, which residents have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.

Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and informed the judge she was unwell, according to media sources, with the magistrate advising her to find a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.

A day after the alleged incident, the city leader said that repairs to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be removed without harming the art piece.

“This wilful damage to a valued public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor said in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those people of our society who have embraced the Blue Blob.”

The mayor added the local government would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those accountable for the damage.

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

Costing A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the artwork depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater found in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.