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

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

In a statement at the moment of the recent event, the local council explained that surveillance video captured a person placing artificial eyes on the sculpture, which locals have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.

Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and informed the judge she was ill, according to media sources, with the magistrate recommending her to find a legal representative before her next court date in December.

A day after the alleged incident, the local mayor said that restoration to the popular community sculpture would be expensive as the adhesive eyes could not be detached without harming the art piece.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said 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.”

The mayor added the council would seek the “substantial” restoration expenses from those accountable for the vandalism.

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

Costing A$136,000 ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an ancient anteater-like marsupial discovered in local caves that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.