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A young person from Australia has faced legal proceedings after allegedly defacing a sizable art piece of a mythical creature by applying plastic eyes to it.

The 19-year-old, aged 19, appeared via phone 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 September incident, the municipal authorities explained that surveillance video captured a individual putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which locals have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.

The accused made no plea and informed the court she was ill, as reported by media sources, with the magistrate advising her to secure a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in December.

A day after the alleged incident, the local mayor stated that repairs to the popular community sculpture would be expensive as the stickers were impossible to be detached without harming the art piece.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor remarked in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those people of our society who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”

The mayor said the local government would seek the “significant” restoration expenses from those responsible for the damage.

When the artwork was first proposed, it received varied responses from the local community due to its price tag and appearance.

Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial found in local caves that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.