Statue of black protester replaces toppled British slave trader Edward Colston
A new black resin and steel statue entitled "A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020" by artist Marc Quinn stands after it was put up on the empty plinth of the toppled statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston, which was pulled down during a Black Lives Matter protest, Bristol, England, July 15, 2020. (AP Photo)


An artist has erected a statue of a Black Lives Matter protester atop the plinth in the English city of Bristol once occupied by the toppled statue of slave trader Edward Colston.

Marc Quinn created the likeness of Jen Reid, a protester photographed standing on the plinth after demonstrators pulled down the statue of Edward Colston and dumped it in Bristol’s harbor on June 7.

The statue, titled "A Surge of Power (Jen Reid)" was erected before dawn Wednesday without approval from city officials.

Colston was a 17th-century trader who made a fortune transporting enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas. His money funded schools and charities in Bristol, 120 miles (195 kilometers) southwest of London.

The toppling of his statue is part of a worldwide reckoning with racism and slavery sparked by the death of a black American man, George Floyd, at the hands of police in Minneapolis, in May.

Quinn, one of Britain’s best-known sculptors, said Reid had "created the sculpture when she stood on the plinth and raised her arm in the air. Now we’re crystallizing it."

Reid told The Guardian newspaper that the new statue was "incredible" and would help "continue the conversation."

City authorities fished the Colston statue out of the harbor and say it will be placed in a museum, along with placards from the Black Lives Matter demonstration.

Quinn, who worked on the statue, called the artwork a "temporary public installation."