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A teenager from Australia has faced legal proceedings after allegedly defacing a large art piece of a mythical creature by applying googly eyes to it.

The 19-year-old, aged 19, participated via phone at the local court in South Australia on Tuesday, charged with a single charge of damaging property.

In a statement at the time of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that surveillance video captured a individual placing fake eyes on the artwork, which locals have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.

Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and informed the court she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the judge recommending her to secure a legal representative before her next court date in December.

A day after the alleged incident, the local mayor said that repairs to the much-loved public artwork would be costly as the stickers were impossible to be detached without harming the art piece.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those people of our society who have embraced Cast in Blue.”

The mayor said the local government would seek the “substantial” restoration expenses from those responsible for the vandalism.

When the sculpture was first proposed, it received varied responses from the local community due to its cost and design.

Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.