Latest news with #BradDowney
Russia Today
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Statue of Melania Trump vandalized in Slovenia (PHOTOS)
A statue of US First Lady Melania Trump, erected near her hometown of Sevnica in Slovenia, has been vandalized and stolen, prompting a police investigation. Photos show that the statue was largely cut away, with only the feet and ankles remaining on the tree stump where it was mounted. Slovenian police confirmed to the media that they are treating the incident, which occurred on May 13, as a case of theft and have launched a formal inquiry. The life-sized bronze figure, which was located in a field, succeeded an earlier wooden version that was set on fire a year after its installation in 2019. The bronze replacement, unveiled in 2020, had the same creators – American conceptual artist Brad Downey and local artist Ales Zupevc. The wooden statue had received mixed reactions from residents. Carved with a chainsaw from a poplar tree trunk, it featured Melania wearing a powder-blue painted dress and heels, apparently referencing the cashmere outfit she wore to her husband's inauguration in 2017. The artwork was destroyed on July 4, 2020, coinciding with Independence Day in the statue became a local tourist curiosity in Sevnica, a small town on the Sava River in eastern Slovenia with a population of around 5,000. The location gained international attention after Melania Trump became US first lady. She spent her early years in Sevnica before embarking on a modeling career that took her to the US in 1996. In the years since, the town has reportedly introduced a range of Melania-themed products to celebrate its most well-known former resident. 'My feeling is that it has something to do with the new election [of Donald Trump], but who knows, right?' Downey told AFP, commenting on the latest incident. He described the missing statue as an 'anti-monument' and 'anti-propaganda.'
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.'
ABC News
17-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
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
Fox News
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Melania Trump statue sawed off at the ankles and stolen in Slovenia
A bronze statue of Melania Trump was sawed off at the ankles and stolen this week in the first lady's native Slovenia, police said. The statue replaced a wooden one that was erected near her hometown of Sevnica in 2020 at the end of President Donald Trump's first term after it was targeted in an arson attack. Both statues were a collaboration between Brad Downey, an artist from Kentucky, and a local craftsman, Ales "Maxi" Zupevc. The original figure, made of wood and cut from the trunk of a linden tree, portrayed the first lady in a pale blue dress, similar to the one she wore at Trump's 2016 inauguration. The new statue was placed on the same stump as the old one and modeled after the previous design. In July 2020, Downey said the statue would be made "as solid as possible, out of a durable material which cannot be wantonly destroyed," according to The Guardian. Slovenian police spokesperson Alenka Drenik Rangus said Friday that police were investigating after the vandalism and theft were reported Tuesday. Franja Kranjc, a worker at a bakery that sells cakes with the first lady's name in support of her, told The Associated Press the rustic likeness wasn't well liked. "I think no one was really proud at this statue, not even the first lady of the USA," Kranjc said. "So, I think it's OK that it's removed." Zupevc said he and Melania Trump were born in the same hospital, which partly inspired him to create the design. He carved the statue with a chainsaw and sanded it with a power tool. "I plugged in my angle grinder. … I worked and made mistakes … finished the hair … the eyes and all. Then, I called my brother, who said, 'Spitting image of our waitress.' And so it was," Zupevc said during a documentary film by Downey on the making of the original statue. A plaque next to the statue says it is "dedicated to the eternal memory of a monument to Melania which stood at this location." Born Melanija Knavs in nearby Novo Mesto in 1970, the first lady grew up in Sevnica while Slovenia was part of the Communist-ruled former Yugoslavia. An Alpine nation of 2 million people, Slovenia is now a member of the European Union and NATO.
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".
