The life-size bronze statue of the First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump, installed near the Slovenian town of Sevnica, has disappeared, apparently stolen by unknown individuals, confirmed Slovenian Police sources to EFE on Thursday.
It is a replica of the original wooden sculpture representing the US First Lady, which was burned by unknown individuals in July 2020.
The replica, made in bronze to make it harder to destroy, was installed three months later and stood life-size on a wooden pedestal in a field near Rozno, close to Sevnica, the eastern Slovenian city where the First Lady and former model spent her childhood.
The figure, with a featureless flat face, waved with a raised hand, in a pose meant to resemble that of her husband, Donald Trump, when he assumed the US presidency for the first time in January 2017.
Both the original artwork and the replica were designed by American artist Brad Downey, who conceived them as "an anti-monument, a counter-propaganda," as he explained to local media at the time.
In this way, he aimed to convey a critical message about Trump's policies during his first term as US President, especially regarding migration, as the statue was also meant to serve as a reminder that his wife immigrated to the US.
The mysterious disappearance this week of the large bronze sculpture has caused a media frenzy. Authorities in the Central European country have launched an investigation to clarify the events and bring those responsible to justice.
"An inspection was carried out at the crime scene, and the investigating judge and the district prosecutor were informed about the theft," a Slovenian Police source told EFE today, specifying that the corresponding report was received last Tuesday at a local police station.
"The investigation continues to clarify all circumstances and carry out the necessary activities to locate the perpetrator," the source added.
"This statue is dedicated to the eternal memory of the Melania monument that stood in this same place," read the inscription on the plaque accompanying the statue.
In January 2020, six months before the original sculpture was found burned, an unknown group also set fire to a wooden figure representing Donald Trump in a village near Ljubljana, where it had been installed a month earlier to denounce, according to its creator, Slovenian Toni Schlegel, the rise of populism in the world.
Melania Trump emigrated in the 1990s from her native country to New York, where she worked as a model before meeting Donald Trump.
She was born in Novo Mesto in 1970, in the city of Sevnica, when Slovenia was part of the now-defunct Yugoslavia.