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.
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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.
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“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.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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