A sculpture of a Black Lives Matter protester installed unauthorized in an English town on the site where a 17th-century monument to a parliamentarian and slave trader was toppled by protesters last month, the city toppled after just one day, according to a report.
City workers carefully removed the Jen Reid statue at dawn Thursday after it was erected early Wednesday morning without the approval or knowledge of the city of Bristol in southwest England, the New York Times reported.
The artist, Marc Quinn, who created the resin and steel after seeing a photo of Reid holding his hand near where the statue of Edward Colston had just been knocked down, said in an interview that he did not expect the statue to stay but hoped that was there long enough to start a conversation about why people are memorized in statues.
“Whether he’s there for a day, a week, or a month, he’s been there,” Reid said Wednesday, according to The Guardian.
Contractors remove ‘A Wave of Power (Jen Reid) 2020’ statue by artist Marc Quinn, which was installed at the site of the fallen statue of slave merchant Edward Colston, in Bristol, England, on Thursday July 16, 2020 Protester Jen Reid’s sculpture was installed without the knowledge or consent of Bristol City Council and was removed by the city council 24 hours later. (Ben Birchall / PA via AP)
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“It is not about knocking down a statue of Jen, who is a very impressive woman,” Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees told the BBC, according to The Guardian. “It is about tearing down a statue of a London-based artist who came and placed it without permission.”
A spokesman for the city council said that after the removal, the statue of Reid will be held at the city museum for the artist to collect or donate.
The BBC reported that Quinn will be charged with the cost of removing the statue, and Reid and Quinn have said that the proceeds from the sale of the statue will go to support black history education in schools, according to The Guardian.
Rees said the fate of the statue will depend on the people of Bristol, The Times reported.
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City workers removed the Colston statue from the nearby port after protesters dumped it there and placed it in a museum, city officials said.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
