Crowds desperate to buy shirts designed by the mysterious street artist Banksy have been seen in Bristol, UK. They were released to support protesters on trial for toppling a slave trader statue during a Black Lives Matter march.
Banksy designed the limited edition “souvenir shirts” to mark the trial of four people charged with damaging a controversial statue in Bristol last year. “All proceeds to the defendants so they can go for a pint,” the artist wrote on Instagram.
Queuing around the block for a #banksy t-shirt in Bristol. Money from sales will go towards legal fees for “colston four” trial starting Monday. They are accused of criminal damage following toppling of statue of slave trader Edward Colston @itvnewspic.twitter.com/UzxZyGFD9T
— Rupert Evelyn (@rupertevelyn) December 11, 2021
Sold for £25 ($33) plus VAT and limited to only one item per person at several shops, the shirt has been in such demand that people queued around blocks to get it. An almost two-minute long video posted on Twitter shows an endless line of customers.
UK media reported that “thousands” were eager to raise cash for the protesters by purchasing the gray T-shirt, which depicts an empty plinth with ‘Bristol’ written above it. It refers to a toppled bronze memorial to the 17th century merchant Edward Colston, who was involved in the transatlantic slave trade.
The activists, known as the ‘Colston Four’, are facing a trial at Bristol Crown Court next week, charged with inflicting criminal damage to a monument belonging to the city council. The men – who have all pleaded not guilty – are accused of sinking the statue “without lawful excuse.” Praised by some for leaving money to various charitable causes after his death, the controversial trader’s statue was attacked in June 2020, when a protest supporting the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was happening in the city.
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The damaged plinth and graffitied statue was later recovered by the city council from Bristol Harbour, where it was thrown during the unrest, and re-emerged as a local museum exhibit, alongside a curated selection of BLM posters from the march. A sculpture of a BLM protester was erected on the empty plinth previously occupied by Colston.
