🔗 Share this article

A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after allegedly defacing a sizable blue sculpture of a legendary being by affixing googly eyes to it.

The 19-year-old, 19 years old, appeared remotely at the local court in the state of South Australia on that day, charged with a single charge of damaging property.

In a statement at the moment of the recent event, the local council explained that surveillance video captured a person placing artificial eyes on the sculpture, which residents have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.

The accused did not enter a plea and informed the court she was ill, as reported by media sources, with the magistrate recommending her to secure a lawyer before her next court date in December.

The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor stated that restoration to the popular community sculpture would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be removed without damaging the sculpture.

“This intentional vandalism to a cherished public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those people of our society who have welcomed 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 received mixed reactions from the area residents due to its price tag and appearance.

Costing A$136,000 ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient anteater-like marsupial discovered in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.