Foreign media say the bronze-coloured fibre-glass shoe was removed from its site in the city of Tikrit on the orders of the local authorities.
It had been erected in the grounds of an orphanage.
The monument was reportedly taken down just a day after being unveiled in the late Saddam Hussein’s home town.
The head of the Childhood organisation, which owns the orphanage, said she had been told to remove the monument immediately by the Salaheddin Provincial Joint Coordination Centre.
“I did take the shoe down immediately and destroyed it, and I did not ask why,” Shahah Daham told the German news agency DPA.