Melania Trump statue in her native Slovenia disappears, after previous one was set on fire

Police in Slovenia are investigating the disappearance of a bronze statue of U.S. first lady Melania Trump that was sawed off and carried away from her hometown.

The life-size sculpture was unveiled in 2020 during President Donald Trump’s first term near Sevnica in central Slovenia, where Melanija Knavs was born in 1970. It replaced a wooden statue that had been set on fire earlier that year.

Police spokeswoman Alenka Drenik Rangus said 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 torched in July 2020. The rustic figure was cut from the trunk of a linden tree, showing her in a pale blue dress like the one she wore at Mr. Trump’s presidential inauguration in 2017. 

The original statue met with mixed opinions by locals, with one resident telling Reuters in 2019 that the Melania depicted in the sculpture “does not look as beautiful as she normally is,” while another local told BBC News it looked like “Smurfette.” It had been carved out of a tree trunk by local chainsaw artist Ales Zupevc, BBC News reported.

The replica bronze statue that replaced it has no obvious resemblance with the first lady.