Police in Slovenia are investigating the disappearance of a bronze statue of Melania Trump that was sawed off and carried away from her hometown. The life-size sculpture was unveiled in 2020 during President Donald Trump’s first term in office near Sevnica in central Slovenia, where the US First Lady, known as Melanija Knavs, was born in 1970.

It replaced a wooden statue that had been set on fire earlier that year. Police spokeswoman Alenka Drenik Rangus said on May 16 that the police were informed about the theft of the statue on Tuesday. She said police were working to track down those responsible. According to Slovenian media reports, the bronze replica was sawn off at the ankles and removed.

The original wooden statue was torched in July 2020. The rustic figure was cut from the trunk of a linden tree, showing Melania in a pale blue dress like the one she wore for President Trump’s inauguration in 2017.

The replica bronze statue has no obvious resemblance to the First Lady, and is an artistic interpretation of her form designed by Berlin-based American artist Brad Downey and constructed by local folk artist Aleš Župevc.

The life-sized statue sat on a three-metre-high tree stump, and was initially widely criticised for being an ugly or unbecoming representation of the First Lady.

The Slovenia Times reports Sevnica, a town with a population of 5,000, is very proud of Mrs Trump, and since she first became US First Lady, the town has launched many Melania-themed products such as cakes, wine, chocolate, tea, salami and a beauty cream.

But despite local love for Melania, it's not the first time the statue has faced difficulty. The day before July 4, 2020, arsonists torched the statue and two months later it was replaced by a bronze replica which Downey and his Slovenian associate Rok Pahor placed on the same stump.

In December 2020, a large wooden effigy of Donald Trump in Slovenia was also attacked. It was destroyed by arson in Moravče, east of the capital Ljubljana, after it was relocated there from another small village because the locals were unhappy with it.

Back in the US, Melania is due to join her husband in Washington to sign a bill addressing deepfakes and revenge porn on Monday. President Trump and his wife are set to host a signing ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, a White House official said.

The First Lady previously travelled to the Capitol in March to lobby Congress to pass the Take It Down Act. The House sent the bill to the White House on April 28 for the president’s signature.