Melania Trump (the Statue) Vanishes in Slovenia.

The bronze sculpture, erected near Ms. Trump’s hometown in eastern Slovenia, was chopped off at the feet and stolen, the police said.

Figure 1 - The disappearance of a statue of Melania Trump near her hometown, Sevnica, Slovenia, has prompted a police investigation. Credit...Matej Leskovsek/The New York Times.

By Lynsey Chutel and Matej Leskovsek
Matej Leskovsek reported from Sevnica, Slovenia, the hometown he shares with the first lady, and Lynsey Chutel reported from London.

The New York Times, May 16, 2025.

Where is Melania Trump?

No, not the rarely seen first lady, but the statue made in her likeness that watched over her nearby hometown, Sevnica, Slovenia.

The life-size bronze statue, 15 minutes outside Sevnica, disappeared from its perch this week. The theft was reported on Tuesday, the police said. But it’s not clear when, exactly, it was taken, Alenka Drenik Rangus, a spokeswoman for the police, said by phone on Friday.

“Police are still assessing the theft, and an investigation is still ongoing,” Ms. Drenik Rangus added.

Residents of Sevnica have their suspicions. Some in the town of about 5,000 people in eastern Slovenia say it could have been an act of vandalism; others say it was probably melted down for cash. None of the people interviewed thought, however, that the statue’s disappearance had been in any way political.

“Melania is rarely seen in the spotlight or anywhere else, and even when she does do something, it’s so bizarre, so I don’t even want to think about her that much,” said Igor Pavkovic, who has lived in Sevnica all his life and recalled laughing when he first saw the statue.

The expressionless sculpture, its arm raised in a tight wave, never quite captured the heart of Sevnica’s residents. Originally made of wood, it was hacked from a linden tree and unveiled in 2019 by an artist who used a chain saw to create a very, very rough likeness of the first lady.

Figure 2 - Ms. Trump left Sevnica in 1985 and has not been spotted in town since. Credit...Matej Leskovsek/The New York Times.

Painted powder blue to reflect the cashmere dress and gloves that Ms. Trump wore to her husband’s first inauguration, in 2017, the statue stood nine feet tall. But it was derided as resembling a scarecrow or a Smurf. Anonymous arsonists set the statue on fire on July 4, 2020.

A bronze replacement was erected later that year. Now, only the statue’s heavy Cubist feet, hacked off at the ankles, remain on the tree trunk that had served as the statue’s plinth. It had stood in a lonely field, far away from the municipal apartment block where Ms. Trump grew up and the school she attended. The privately owned field overlooks the Sava River and a verdant valley, but only runners and cyclists would have regularly crossed paths with the statue.
Both the wood and metal iterations had been commissioned by an American artist, Brad Downey, who worked with local artisans to create the sculptures. He had reported the statue missing, he said in an Instagram post on Saturday.

“What’s left is a fragment — rooted, but silenced,” he said alongside images of the severed statue.

Mr. Downey said in 2019 that he saw the statue’s form and location as an interrogation of President Trump’s harsh stance on immigration.

“The idea to commission the first monument to Melania has some cheekiness to it, but I wanted to do a serious investigation there,” Mr. Downey said, adding at the time that the statue, placed atop a tree stump, was rooted in the area Ms. Trump came from.

Figure 3 - The statue that replaced a wooden one set on fire in 2020. Credit...Jure Makovec/ Agence France-Presse — Getty Images.

While no one has claimed responsibility for the statue’s disappearance, it vanished at a time when public dissatisfaction with Mr. Trump’s second-term policies have been expressed globally through vandalism of vehicles made by Tesla, the electric car company owned by Elon Musk, Mr. Trump’s adviser. Satirical advertisements mocking both men have also popped up around London in recent weeks.

Few in Sevnica said they would miss the statue.

“I only saw it in pictures, and I thought it was very unesthetic,” said Nena Bedek, an art teacher who said she had gone to school with Ms. Trump. “I had the feeling someone was making fun.”

“We were all ashamed of the statue when it was first unveiled, especially Melania and the Knavs family,” Bruno Vidmar, a hotelier whose business has thrived off the factory town’s tenuous link to the White House. Ms. Trump’s businessman father, Victor Knavs, has been known to stop by Mr. Vidmar’s hotel for dinner when he’s in town.

Ms. Trump was born in Novo Mesto, and her family later moved to Sevnica. She left in 1985 and has not been seen there since. That hasn’t stopped the town from capitalizing on its most famous ambassador. Ms. Trump has inspired coffee, chocolate and comfy slippers, all cleverly branded to avoid copyright claims.

In a gift shop hangs an amateur painting that merges the facade of the White House with Sevnica’s other famous attraction — a 12th-century castle. A patisserie in Mr. Vidmar’s hotel serves a slice of Melania: a white chocolate, cream and mascarpone sponge cake, drizzled with walnuts, pistachios and sesame seeds. Mr. Vidmar’s wife came up with the recipe during Mr. Trump’s first term, the hotelier said.

Figure 4 - The Melania cake at a patisserie in Sevnica. Credit...Matej Leskovsek/The New York Times.

Locals say it’s fresh and elegant — like Ms. Trump.

“We can be proud of her that she is the first lady now for the second time,” said Meri Kelemina, who lives in a village near where the statue once stood.

She added that the statue and its location had done little for the town and had not flattered Sevnica’s most famous former resident.

“I think she deserves a nice landmark,” she said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/world/europe/slovenia-melania-trump-statue.html