LOOK: Bronze statue of Melania Trump goes missing
Police are investigating the disappearance of Melania Trump’s bronze statue, which was sawed off at the ankles and stolen.
The first Melania Trump statue in her native Slovenia was destroyed by fire, and now its bronze replacement has gone missing, prompting a police investigation.
Sculpture of Melania Trump in her Slovenian hometown. The life-sized statue depicts Trump in the blue outfit she wore to her husband's presidential inauguration in 2017 and shows her raising her left hand in a waving gesture. pic.twitter.com/myKRTh3FMK
— Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) July 6, 2019
Melania Trump is trending. I always laugh when people tell me she's 'internationally loved'. They built a statue of her in Slovenia and the people burned it down😆😆 pic.twitter.com/rSDmXfL4gQ
— Elizabetmore7 (@Elizabetmore7) December 30, 2024
The life-sized bronze statue of the U.S. First Lady was unveiled near her hometown of Sevnica in 2020.
It towered over a field on a tree stump after arson destroyed the previous wooden statue.
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According to police and the statue’s creator, American conceptual artist Brad Downey, the statue was chopped off at the ankles and carted away.
BREAKING NEWS : Melania Trump Statue Stolen in Slovenia:
— Global Report (@Globalrepport) May 16, 2025
A life-size bronze statue of U.S. First Lady Melania Trump has been stolen from her hometown of Sevnica, Slovenia, prompting a police investigation. The statue, located in the village of Rozno, was sawed off at the ankles… pic.twitter.com/5FScRSTx8O
WHERE IS MELANIA?
— Lovable Liberal and his Old English sheepdog (@DougWahl1) May 17, 2025
A bronze statue of Melania Trump was sawed off at the ankles and stolen this week in the first lady’s native Slovenia. This is the second time that vandals hit the statue. An earlier version was set on fire.
Your thoughts? pic.twitter.com/Zgoq4TNdkk
"The theft was reported on May 13, and police officers immediately visited the crime scene and launched an investigation," police spokesperson Alenka Drenik Rangus told AFP on Thursday.
Downey said he learned about the theft while preparing a new project in Germany and noted he was "a bit sad that it’s gone."
"My feeling is that it has something to do with the new election (of Donald Trump), but who knows, right?" Downey told AFP.
He added that when the original statue had been burned, "it didn’t feel right," so he decided to replace it with a bronze copy, which he has described as an "anti-monument, anti-propaganda."
The original statue, featuring a blue dress and heels, had been carved with a chainsaw by local artist Ales Zupevc out of a tree.
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The bronze statue was placed on a private field—secured with concrete and metal bars—near Sevnica toward the end of Donald Trump’s first term as U.S. president, while he was campaigning for re-election.
Melania’s arrival in the White House when her husband Donald became U.S. president raised hopes that he might one day visit her homeland, which has yet to happen.
Melania left the EU member state of two million people when it was still part of communist Yugoslavia.
In Sevnica, about 90 kilometres (60 miles) east of the capital Ljubljana, she has inspired numerous products, including cakes and chocolates named after her.
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Image: X/ Screenshot