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A teenager from Australia has faced legal proceedings after allegedly vandalizing a sizable art piece of a legendary being by affixing plastic eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, appeared via phone at the local court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with one count of damaging property.

Officials commented at the time of the recent event, the local council said that surveillance video captured a individual putting fake eyes on the artwork, which residents have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.

The accused did not enter a plea and informed the court she was ill, according to news outlets, with the magistrate recommending her to find a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in December.

A day after the reported event, the local mayor said that restoration to the popular community sculpture would be expensive as the stickers were impossible to be detached without harming the art piece.

“This wilful damage to a cherished community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also disappointing to those members of our society who have embraced the Blue Blob.”

She added the local government would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those accountable for the vandalism.

At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it drew varied responses from the area residents due to its cost and design.

Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the artwork represents a legendary giant animal, with the creators influenced by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.