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A teenager from Australia has faced legal proceedings after allegedly vandalizing a sizable art piece of a mythical creature by affixing googly eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared remotely at the local court in the state of South Australia on that day, charged with a single charge of property damage.

In a statement at the moment of the recent event, the municipal authorities explained that CCTV footage 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 judge she was ill, as reported by media sources, with the judge 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 city leader stated that repairs to the popular community sculpture would be expensive as the stickers could not be removed without damaging the art piece.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those people of our society who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”

She said the council would pursue the “significant” repair costs from those responsible for the vandalism.

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

Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the sculpture depicts 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”.