Banksy t-shirts sold for £25 for ‘Colston 4’ already on eBay for more than £1k

T-shirts created by Banksy to raise money for four people on trial over the toppling of the Colston statue have already been listed on eBay.

The souvenir shirts went on sale at Frontline Videos in St Pauls, and Friendly Records, That Thing, Hakuna Matata and Rough Trade in Bristol city centre today.

They are priced at £30 plus VAT for adults and £25 plus VAT for children.

Banksy said all proceeds would go to the defendants so ‘they can go for a pint’.

The announcement of the sale on Friday night led to thousands of people coming from across the country to queue up outside the shops this morning.

Local radio station Umija Radio, which was chosen to give out the names of the shops, even saw its website crash due to listener demand at 9am.

And just hours after going on sale, the grey shirts, featuring Colston’s empty plinth with a rope hanging off, were already on eBay, listed for as much as £1,500.

One seller from Buckingham, who priced a small t-shirt for £1,500, wrote: “Unworn, bought in drop today at Frontline Video, I have the receipt for proof it’s real.”

Another seller, this time from Bristol, priced their shirt at £1,000. They wrote: “Brand new in hand. Limited edition. Genuine. Receipt in photo. Purchased from Friendly Record.”

While another, from Huntingdon, had the shirt priced at £1,250 and offering delivery ‘in time for Christmas’.

Banksy had revealed the design of the shirts in an Instagram post on Friday evening.

The post said: said: “Next week the four people charged with pulling down Colston’s statue in Bristol are going on trial.

“I’ve made some souvenir shirts to mark the occasion. Available from various outlets in the city from tomorrow. All proceeds to the defendants so they can go for a pint.”

On Monday Rhian Graham, 29, Milo Ponsford, 25, Jake Skuse, 36, and Sage Willoughby, 21, face trial at Bristol Crown Court.

Edward Colston’ statue was pulled down during a Black Lives Matter protest on June 7 last year, before being dumped in Bristol Harbour and later recovered by Bristol City Council.

Charges allege that the four defendants, without lawful excuse, jointly and with others, damaged the statue of Edward Colston, a listed monument belonging to Bristol City Council.