LONDON – Just 24 hours after its installation, authorities have removed a Black Lives Matter sculpture that replaced the statue of a slave trader in the British city of Bristol.
During protests that swept across Europe following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, protesters in Bristol, a small town about 120 miles west of London, brought down the statue of Edward Colston, a benefactor of the city who made his fortune in the 17th century slave trade. and threw it into the port.
Early Wednesday morning, British artist Marc Quinn erected his unauthorized replacement: a sculpture depicting one of the protesters, Bristol resident Jen Reid, saluting the Black Power. Authorities have now used a crane to remove the life-size black resin artwork, titled “A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020.”
Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees said he believes that anything that replaces the Colston statue should reflect all aspects of the city’s history and should be decided by its residents.
“I prefer to say that we are not tearing down the statue of a Black Lives Matter protester, we are tearing down the work of a London-based artist who erected it without permission and without any conversation with the city,” Rees told Sky News. , which, like NBC News, is owned by Comcast Corp., on Thursday.
The mayor, who is black, said he did not like the Colston statue, but did not agree with the way it was knocked down. Since then it has been recovered from the water and will be placed in a museum. A committee of historians is now working to find a replacement that reflects the city’s past and represents the different views of its residents, he said.
The Quinn statue “was placed outside of that process and therefore has to fall,” said the mayor. It will now be placed in storage.
Quinn has said that if the artwork is sold, the proceeds will be donated to two charities that promote black history.
Reid, the sculpture’s subject, said Wednesday he wanted the statue to remain in place.
But Quinn said she did not see it “as a permanent solution to what should be there; it is a spark that we hope will help draw continued attention to this vital and pressing problem.”
