Latest news with #AlesMaxiZupevc
Telegraph
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Melania Trump statue removed from her hometown for second time
Police in Slovenia are investigating the disappearance of a bronze statue of first lady Melania Trump. The life-size sculpture was sawed off and carried away from her hometown on Tuesday. Unveiled in 2020 during president Donald Trump's first term in office, the statue was placed near Sevnica in central Slovenia where Melanija Knavs was born in 1970. It replaced an eight-metre tall wooden statue that had been set on fire earlier that year. Police spokeswoman 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, the bronze replica was sawed off at the ankles and removed. The original wooden statue was carved from a linden tree trunk on top of a hill. It depicted the first lady in the blue coat she wore for her husband's first inauguration in 2017. That statue was carved by local Ales 'Maxi' Zupevc in July 2019, who was commissioned by US artist Brad Downey, who had made a cast of the statue. After the first was removed by locals and burned on US independence day, a second replica version – which has now also vanished – was made from bronze and placed on the same spot. There are likely to be a number of local suspects after the statue was criticised for its looks, with some saying it looked like a smurf. Sevnica has become a tourist attraction for fans of Mr Trump and his wife, with local shops selling themed products including honey and chocolates. Franja Kranjc, who works at a bakery in Sevnica that sells cakes with Melania Trump's name in support of the first lady, said the stolen statue won't be missed. 'I think no one was really proud of this statue, not even the first lady of the USA,' he said. 'So I think it's OK that it's removed.'
BBC News
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Melania Trump statue missing from her hometown in Slovenia
"Melania" appeared on the banks of the River Sava in July 2020, four months before her human inspiration left the White four months after the erstwhile Melanija Knavs resumed residence at Washington's most famous address, her larger-than-life-size avatar has apparently made an undignified exit from her Slovenian hometown, that remains of the massive bronze statue are the feet – and the two-metre-tall tree stump they were standing on. Melania Trump sculpture in Slovenia set on fire on US Independence DayNew Melania Trump metal statue unveiled in Slovenia The symmetry would probably appeal to the whimsical US director Wes Anderson – who often features bizarre heists in his films. But even in his back catalogue, there has never been anything quite like the case of the cursed First Lady this is not the first time a Melania Trump tribute has met a sticky end in first iteration was unveiled in July 2019. Carved from a single piece of wood by a chainsaw-wielding local artisan called Ales "Maxi" Zupevc, it lasted a year before an unidentified perpetrator decided to turn it into a Fourth of July US artist Brad Downey – who commissioned Maxi to create the wooden original – had already made a cast of the statue. It duly made a comeback in bronze, at the same its unveiling, Mr Downey said the new version had been designed to be "as solid as possible, out of a durable material which cannot be wantonly destroyed".But, as it turns out, it can be chopped off at the ankles and taken police say they are treating "Melania's" disappearance as "theft" and have launched an investigation. Brad Downey has always insisted that his work was political. He chose Maxi as a collaborator because his upbringing had been similar to that of the First he argued that Melania Trump benefitted from a fast-tracked US citizenship process, while other immigrants suffered under her husband's "xenophobic" he suspects the statue's disappearance "has something to do with Trump getting re-elected".Meanwhile, in Sevnica, the local authorities have mixed feelings. They condemned "any form of interference with private or public property".But, they added, "the image of the US First Lady was not something anyone was proud of".
