Statue of Melania Trump stolen near US first lady's Slovenian hometown
Police in Slovenia are investigating the disappearance of a bronze statue of the United States's first lady, Melania Trump, which was sawed off at the feet and carried away from her hometown.
The life-size sculpture near Sevnica in central Slovenia, where Melanija Knavs was born in 1970, was unveiled in 2020 during US President Donald Trump's first term in office.
It replaced a wooden statue that had been set on fire earlier that year.
Police spokesperson Alenka Drenik Rangus said on Friday that the police were informed about the theft of the statue on Tuesday.
She said police were working to track down those responsible.
According to Slovenian media reports and the statue's creator, American conceptual artist Brad Downey, the bronze replica was sawed off at the ankles and removed.
Franja Kranjc, who works at a bakery in Sevnica which sells cakes with Ms Trump's name in support of the first lady, said the stolen statue would not be missed.
"So I think it's OK that it's removed."
The original wooden statue was torched in July 2020. The rustic figure was cut from the trunk of a linden tree by local artist Ales Zupevc and showed the first lady in a pale blue dress like the one she wore at Mr Trump's presidential inauguration in 2017.
Mr Downey said he learnt about the theft while preparing a new project in Germany and 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?" he said.
Mr Downey added that when the original statue was burnt "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".
Ms Trump's arrival in the White House when her husband became president raised hope he might one day visit her homeland, something that has yet to happen. The first lady left the EU-member nation when it was still part of communist Yugoslavia.
In Sevnica, some 90 kilometres east of the capital Ljubljana, she has inspired numerous products, including cakes and chocolates, named after her.
The replica bronze statue has no obvious resemblance with the first lady.
AFP/AP
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