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A young person from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly vandalizing a sizable art piece of a legendary being by affixing plastic eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared via phone at the local court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, charged with a single charge of damaging property.

In a statement at the time of the recent event, the municipal authorities said that CCTV footage captured a individual putting fake eyes on the artwork, which locals have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.

The accused made no plea and informed the judge she was ill, according to media sources, with the judge advising her to secure a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in December.

A day after the alleged incident, the city leader said that restoration to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the stickers were impossible to be removed without harming the art piece.

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

The mayor said the local government would pursue the “substantial” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.

When the artwork was first proposed, it received varied responses from the local community due to its price tag and appearance.

Priced at 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the artwork 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”.