The Guardian reported Thursday that a statue of First Lady Melania Trump in her homeland of Slovenia has been stolen, and police are investigating.
The bronze statue had replaced a wooden one, which was destroyed by arson in 2020.
“The theft was reported on 13 May, and immediately, police officers visited the crime scene and launched an investigation,” a police spokesperson told the newspaper.
The American conceptual artist Brad Downey told The Guardian that the statue was “chopped off at the ankles and removed. ” The statue is located in a small town called Sevnica.
The bronze statue of Melania in Slovenia has been stolen, after the previous wooden version was set on fire. This version has reportedly replaced Melania at several White House state dinners and was only detected because it was chattier pic.twitter.com/ggAAUdNB2C
— Paul Rudnick (@PaulRudnickNY) May 15, 2025
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An art website called Points of Resistance went into some backstory of how the statue came to be.
“The cause for the erection of the monument to Melania is Brad’s first visit to Slovenia in the summer of 2018 when he discovered that it is the birthplace of the First Lady of his homeland. Another motivation could certainly be the aggressive anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies of her husband. So Brad decided to commemorate this contradiction named Melania together with a team of Slovenian colleagues and the local community,” the website said.
“Melania is a multi-layered project that is simply not allowed to conclude by everything that is happening around it.”
The Guardian also noted that Donald Trump has never visited his wife’s homeland of Slovenia during either of his presidencies.
In an interview this week, journalist and Trump biographer Michael Wolff said that the president and first lady are functionally “separated. ” This follows reports that the first lady only made a handful of public appearances during her husband’s first 100 days in office. The New York Times attributed this to Melania being “spooked” following last year’s assassination attempts.
Police in Slovenia are investigating the theft of a bronze statue of Melania Trump. The first statue, made of wood, was set on fire by arsonists. Locals criticized the wooden statue, calling it ‘Smurfette’ or a ‘disgrace.'” pic.twitter.com/zsAuuBnTQk
— Hoodlum 🇺🇸 (@NotHoodlum) May 16, 2025
The White House pushed back forcefully, with White House Communications Director Steven Cheung describing Wolff as “a blithering idiot.”
He is an imbecile of the highest order, and his Trump Derangement Syndrome-addled brain has caused him to lead a miserable existence devoid of reality,” Cheung said.
Photo courtesy of X Screenshot.
