Toppled Edward Colston statue to remain on display in museum so people can learn about slavery

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The statue of slave trader Edward Colston pulled down by activists should stay on display at a museum in Bristol so people can learn about slavery, an independent commission has recommended.

A survey to gather views by the We Are Bristol History Commission found that 75 per cent of respondents wanted the statue to remain in a museum.

Only 12 per cent of the 14,000 people who responded to the poll said they wanted the statue put back on its plinth after it was torn down during Black Lives Matter protests in 2021.

It is currently sat next to “steam engine parts” and “old chocolate wrappers” at the M Shed museum.

In the report, read out by Professor Tim Coles from the University of Bristol who is also the chair of “We Are Bristol”, it was recommended the statute become part of Bristol Museum’s collection.

The report also recommended the statue remain in its current state, without being cleaned of paint and damage from the removal.

The report also recommended a plaque be added recognising its life from when it was put up to when it was later pulled down.

This could read: “On 13 November 1895, a statue of Edward Colston (1636-1721) was unveiled here celebrating him as a city benefactor.

“In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, the celebration of Colston was increasingly challenged given his prominent role in the enslavement of African people.

“On 7 June 2020, the statue was pulled down during Black Lives Matter protests and rolled into the harbour.

“Following consultation with the city in 2021, the statue entered the collections of Bristol City Council’s museums.”

The commission is also recommending the city thinks “creatively” about the plinth and that temporary artworks are commissioned.

“The history of the city’s involvement with the transatlantic enslavement of African people is not an issue that can or should be consigned to the past, but rather remains embedded in present-day concerns,” they wrote.

“Strong feelings remain on the topic, and the toppling of the Colston statue has opened the opportunity for this history to be addressed urgently, appropriately and sensitively.”

The report will now be considered by the mayor and the recommendations will need approving at the cabinet meeting in April.

Last month four people - Rhian Graham, 30, Milo Ponsford, 26, Sage Willoughby, 22, and Jake Skuse, 33 - were found not guilty of criminal damage having been accused of toppling the statue.

Additional reporting by agencies