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A young person from Australia has faced legal proceedings after reportedly vandalizing a sizable art piece of a mythical creature by applying googly eyes to it.

The 19-year-old, aged 19, participated remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on that day, facing with a single charge of property damage.

In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that surveillance video showed a individual putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.

The accused did not enter a plea and told the judge she was ill, according to media sources, with the magistrate recommending her to secure a legal representative before her next court date in December.

A day after the reported event, the local mayor said that repairs to the much-loved community sculpture would be costly as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be removed without damaging the sculpture.

“This intentional vandalism to a cherished public artwork is unacceptable 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 added the local government would pursue the “substantial” repair costs from those responsible for the vandalism.

When the sculpture was first proposed, it received varied responses from the area residents due to its cost and appearance.

Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the artwork represents a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.