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

The 19-year-old, 19 years old, appeared via phone at the local court in the state of South Australia on that day, charged with one count of damaging property.

Officials commented at the moment of the recent event, the municipal authorities explained that surveillance video showed a person placing fake eyes on the artwork, which residents have dubbed the “Blue Blob”.

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

The following day the reported event, the local mayor stated that repairs to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the stickers could not be detached without harming the sculpture.

“This wilful damage to a cherished 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 embraced the Blue Blob.”

She added the council would seek the “significant” restoration expenses from those accountable for the vandalism.

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

Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient marsupial ant-eater found in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.