‘PRETTY F*CKING BALLSY’

British Enslaver Statue Replaced With Sculpture of Black Lives Matter Demonstrator

It was installed during a covert dawn operation Wednesday morning.

A toppled statue of a British slave trader has been replaced with a sculpture of one of the protesters who helped tear him down. The Guardian reports that the statue of 17th-century merchant Edward Colston—which was dragged down by demonstrators and then tossed into a river in the city of Bristol last month—has been replaced with a sculpture of demonstrator Jen Reid. Immediately after Colston’s toppling, Reid was photographed on his empty plinth with her fist raised. Artist Marc Quinn had been secretly working with Reid to immortalize her pose in the sculpture, The Guardian reports. It was installed during a covert dawn operation Wednesday morning—without first getting permission from city authorities. A placard reading “black lives still matter” was placed at the bottom of the plinth. Reid, who was there to see her sculpture being raised, said: “It’s just incredible... That’s pretty fucking ballsy, that it is.”