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A young person from Australia has faced legal proceedings after allegedly vandalizing a large blue sculpture of a mythical creature by applying googly eyes to it.

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

In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the municipal authorities said that CCTV footage showed a individual putting artificial eyes on the artwork, which locals have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.

Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and told the court she was unwell, according to media sources, with the judge advising her to find a legal representative before her next court date in the final month of the year.

The following day the reported event, the city leader stated that repairs to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the stickers were impossible to be removed without damaging the art piece.

“This wilful damage to a valued public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor said in mid-September. “It is not harmless fun, it is pricey - it is also frustrating to those people of our community who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”

She said the council would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those accountable for the damage.

When the artwork was initially suggested, it received varied responses from the local community due to its cost and appearance.

Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial discovered in local caves that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.