Several years ago, First Lady Melania Trump was honored with a massive carved statue near her birthplace in Slovenia. When arsons set the wooden sculpture ablaze, American artist Brad Downey replaced it with a bronze statue. A new bronze statue of first lady Melania Trump was unveiled in Slovenia this week, after a wooden version of the memorial was burned in July. pic.twitter.com/fZ3lkNMfhm — CBS News (@CBSNews) September 20, 2020 This week, reports surfaced that it had been removed from its base and stolen. According to the New York Post: Downey said 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?” the artist said. The first lady was born in Novo Mesto in 1970 but grew up in the town of Sevnica when Slovenia was part of the Communist nation of Yugoslavia. The latest act of vandalism quickly received some attention on social media: Melania Trump bronze statue stolen in Slovenia, AFP A life-size figure of the US First Lady was installed near her hometown of Sevnica in 2020, on a stump in the middle of a field. According to police, the statue was cut off at the ankles and taken away. pic.twitter.com/Xh8ioHBUhZ — ★V141NG★ ? (@inexorable_fuck) May 15, 2025 This Melania Trump statue was stolen from her hometown, but I’m starting to think they did her a favorhttps://t.co/rEszWp3IAc — Not the Bee (@Not_the_Bee) May 16, 2025 AP News provided some additional coverage: According to Slovenian media reports, the bronze replica was sawed off at the ankles and removed. 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 at this statue, not even the first lady of the USA,” he said. “So I think its OK that it’s removed.” Here’s a 2020 report on what became of the original wooden statue: