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

The 19-year-old, 19 years old, appeared remotely at the local court in South Australia on Tuesday, facing with one count of damaging property.

In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that CCTV footage captured a individual putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which locals have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.

The accused made no plea and told the judge she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the magistrate advising her to secure a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in December.

A day after the reported event, the local mayor said that repairs to the popular community sculpture would be costly as the stickers could not be removed without harming the sculpture.

“This intentional vandalism to a cherished community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor said in September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those people of our society who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”

The mayor said the council would pursue the “significant” repair costs from those accountable for the damage.

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

Costing 136,000 Australian dollars ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture represents a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.