SEVNICA, Slovenia – Where is Melania Trump?

No, not the rarely seen US 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 May 13, police said. But it is not clear when, exactly, it was taken, Ms Alenka Drenik, a spokeswoman for the police, said by phone on May 16.

“Police are still assessing the theft, and an investigation is still ongoing,” Ms Drenik 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 Mr 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Originally made of wood, it was hacked from a linden tree and unveiled in 2019 by an artist who used a chainsaw to create a very, very rough likeness of the First Lady.

Painted powder blue to reflect the cashmere dress and gloves that she wore to her husband’s first inauguration, in 2017, the wood statue stood 2.7m 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.