Australian Teen Charged for Supposedly Attaching Googly Eyes on ‘Blue Blob’ Artwork

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

The 19-year-old, 19 years old, appeared via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in 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 said that CCTV footage captured a person putting artificial eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.

The accused did not enter a plea and told the court she was ill, as reported by media sources, with the judge recommending her to secure a legal representative before her next court date in the final month of the year.

The following day the reported event, the city leader stated that repairs to the popular public artwork would be costly as the stickers were impossible to be removed without harming the art piece.

“This wilful damage to a cherished public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor remarked 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 council would pursue the “significant” restoration expenses 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 cost and design.

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