The statue of the activist lasted less than 24 hours before workers from the city council removed it.
ADVERTISEMENTIt lasted on its plinth less than a day but the statue of Black Lives Matter activist Jen Reid, which was installed in the place of a monument to slave trader Edward Colston, has been taken down.
Workers from Bristol City Council removed the statue less than 24 hours after it was surreptitiously put up by artist Marc Quinn.
The original statue of Edward Colston, a 17th Century Tory MP and slave trader, was torn down by a crowd and thrown into a nearby river on June 7.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the new monument of Reid was installed in Colston’s place.
Quinn created the likeness of the activist after she was photographed standing on the plinth after demonstrators pulled down Colston’s statue.
Quinn said Reid had "created the sculpture when she stood on the plinth and raised her arm in the air. Now we're crystallising it."
The new statue didn't have council permission to be there. On seeing the statue yesterday, Reid said: “I'd like the council to keep it here because obviously what it represents and who was there prior. It's a decision that they're going to have to make. I think the most important thing is that something is up there replacing Edward Colston. And for people to discuss, educate, learn and just keep talking about, you know, BLM (Black Lives Matter).”
“It looks like it belongs there,” she added.
“Looks like it's been there forever. It's something that fills me with pride. Yeah, I absolutely love it.”
City authorities fished the Colston statue out of the harbour and say it will be placed in a museum, along with placards from the Black Lives Matter demonstration.
The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked widespread protests about racial injustice, which snowballed from the US across the world.
As the Black Lives Matter movement swelled, activists turned their attention to an everyday reminder of racial injustice of the past — statues and monuments to colonialists and slave traders, including Colston.