Banksy T-shirts for statue-toppling defendants go on sale
December 11, 2021
Hundreds of people on Saturday lined up outside a shop in southwestern England to buy Banksy-designed T-shirts created to help four defendants charged over the toppling of a statue of a slave merchant.
The statue of 17th-century slave merchant Edward Colston was hauled down and thrown into the waters at Bristol harbor during a Black Lives Matter protest in June of last year.
Four of the anti-racism demonstrators have since been charged with causing criminal damage and will face trial next week.
Beer money
Elusive street artist Banksy said on Instagram he wanted to help the accused by raising funds from the T-shirts so the quartet "can go for a pint."
The T-shirts cost £25 ($33, €29) and are limited to one per person.
Banksy's identity remains a closely guarded secret. He began his career spray-painting walls and bridges in Bristol. Since then, many of his works have sold for millions of dollars at auction.
Statue placed in a musem
Colston, whose statue was erected some 175 years after his death, made his fortune transporting enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas.
After it was hauled into the harbor, Bristol authorities fished the statue out, saying it will be placed in a museum, along with placards from the Black Lives Matter demonstration.
jsi/fb (AP, dpa)