Protesters in Bristol, England, tore down the statue of an infamous slave trader Sunday and threw it into nearby Bristol Harbor.
The statue of Edward Colston in central Bristol had long been a point of contention for the city, as were the many landmarks and buildings that bore his name.
The Bristol City Council announced Monday it had collected the protest signs demonstrators laid around the statue's now-empty pedestal to preserve them for later display in a Bristol museum.
"I can't and won't pretend the statue of a slave trader in a city I was born and grew up in wasn't an affront to me and people like me," he said.
Rees said the protest itself is now part of the city's history and that the statue would likely be fished out of the harbor and preserved in a museum.
