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A teenager from the Land Down Under has faced legal proceedings after allegedly vandalizing a large art piece of a legendary being by affixing plastic eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, participated via phone at the local court in the state of South Australia on that day, charged with a single charge of damaging property.

Officials commented at the moment of the September incident, the local council said that surveillance video captured a person putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.

Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and informed the court she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the judge recommending her to secure a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.

The following day the reported event, the local mayor said that restoration to the popular public artwork would be costly as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be detached without damaging the art piece.

“This wilful damage to a valued community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in mid-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.”

She added the council would pursue the “significant” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.

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

Costing A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the sculpture depicts a legendary giant animal, with the creators influenced by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial found in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.