Police find 'Emperor Has No Balls' statue depicting naked Donald Trump

9 days after theft police return controversial sculpture

MIAMI – Police found "The Emperor Has No Balls" -- a statue depicting a Donald Trump in the nude. Someone dropped it off at the Miami police headquarters in downtown Miami. 

Pedro Rodriguez, 36, turned himself in. He didn't confess, but since a witness identified him and his truck, police arrested him Friday afternoon.

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Rodriguez faced grand theft and burglary charges, Miami-Dade County records show. 

Police returned the light-weight piece to the owner, nine days after thieves took it from a the Harold Golden Gallery in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood, according to Miami Detective Kenia Fallat. 

It was not in one piece. The Miami Herald had pictures showing its feet were gone and head damaged. 

Before Moishe Mana, an Israeli developer, brought the statue to be placed on a billboard at his property in Wynwood, a statue out of the same mold was stolen in New Jersey

There were replicas in San Francisco, Seattle, New York and Los Angeles. The sculpture was first displayed in Miami Aug. 14 on a Mana billboard. When authorities said it was a risk, he moved it to the roof of a gallery. 

"We feel responsible for bringing attention to Mr. Trump's dangerous rhetoric," Mana Group President Eugnee Lemay told The Real Deal in a statement. "We are doing what we can to communicate our values."

The statue was a replica made out of a silicone mold by Joshua "Ginger" Monroe, an artist based out of Las Vegas, who worked on the concept for Indecline, an anarchist collective. It was inspired on Ilma Gore's "Make America Great" naked portrait of Trump on display at the Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas.

What many didn't know is the artist expected the statues to be destroyed and damaged.

Monroe told the Daily Beast when he made it, he planed to vote for Trump. But he said he changed his mind, after Trump ridiculed The New York Times' Serge Kovaleski, who suffers from a congenital joint condition.

Monroe said he now plans to vote for Gary Johnson, the candidate for the Libertarian Party.  

Monroe  told The Rolling Stone in August Art Basel Miami Beach requested one. 

YOUTUBE | Video by INDECLINE 


About the Authors:

The Emmy Award-winning journalist joined the Local 10 News team in 2013. She wrote for the Miami Herald for more than 9 years and won a Green Eyeshade Award.