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A teenager from Australia has appeared in court after reportedly vandalizing a sizable art piece of a mythical creature by affixing plastic eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, participated remotely at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in the state of South Australia on that day, facing with a single charge of property damage.

In a statement at the time of the recent event, the local council said that CCTV footage showed a individual putting fake eyes on the artwork, which residents have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.

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

The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor said that repairs to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be detached without harming the art piece.

“This wilful damage to a valued community art is inappropriate and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor said in September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those members of our community who have embraced Cast in Blue.”

She added the council would seek the “substantial” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.

At the time the artwork was first proposed, it received varied responses from the local community due to its cost and design.

Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; £68,000), the artwork represents a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.