SEVNICA, Slovenia – A bronze statue of US First Lady Melania Trump has mysteriously disappeared from her hometown of Sevnica, Slovenia, leaving only its feet and the two-meter-tall tree stump it stood upon. The disappearance marks the second time a tribute to Trump has met an untimely end in Sevnica, baffling locals and prompting a police investigation.

The bronze sculpture, created by US artist Brad Downey, was unveiled in September 2020 on the banks of the River Sava. It appeared just four months before her husband, Donald Trump, left the White House. Now, four months after Melania Trump resumed residence at Washington’s most famous address, her larger-than-life avatar has seemingly made an undignified exit.

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Local police are treating the disappearance as “theft” and have launched an investigation.

This is not the first instance of a Melania Trump tribute facing destruction in Sevnica. The first iteration, a wooden statue carved by local artisan Ales “Maxi” Zupevc, was unveiled in July 2019. It lasted only a year before an unidentified perpetrator set it ablaze in what appeared to be a Fourth of July bonfire.

Luckily, artist Brad Downey, who commissioned Maxi for the original wooden piece, had already made a cast. This allowed for the creation of the bronze replacement, erected at the same site. At its unveiling,

Downey stated the new version was designed to be “as solid as possible, out of a durable material which cannot be wantonly destroyed.” However, it appears it could be chopped off at the ankles and taken away.

Brad Downey has consistently maintained that his artwork carried political undertones. He chose Maxi as a collaborator due to their similar upbringings to the First Lady. Downey argued that Melania Trump benefited from a fast-tracked US citizenship process, contrasting with the suffering of other immigrants under her husband’s “xenophobic” policies. He now suspects the statue’s disappearance “has something to do with Trump getting re-elected.”

Meanwhile, authorities in Sevnica have expressed mixed sentiments. While condemning “any form of interference with private or public property,” they also added that “the image of the US First Lady was not something anyone was proud of.” The bizarre incident has drawn comparisons to the whimsical heists often depicted in films by US director Wes Anderson.