As a gamer, I’m always intrigued by the latest news in the art world, especially when it involves Maurizio Cattelan, the genius behind the infamous duct-taped banana that sold for an eye-popping $6 million last November. Now, he’s back in the headlines due to a bizarre incident involving his gold toilet at Blenheim Palace in England. Four suspects, apparently, decided to make off with it, managing to steal it in just five minutes! Unfortunately, the toilet was never found again, according to ARTnews. Quite a twist in the art world, isn’t it?
Titled “America” (2016), the piece in question is an actual golden toilet crafted from 18-karat gold weighing approximately 103 kilograms. This unique artwork was placed inside the guides’ restroom. While visitors were allowed to observe it, they could only do so by reserving time slots to use the toilet. The artwork was initially displayed as part of an exhibition featuring other conceptual pieces by Cattelan at an 18th-century castle in Oxfordshire, England in 2019. Prior to that, it had been on display at New York’s Guggenheim Museum since September 2016. The design was based on a traditional Kohler toilet, which was produced by a foundry in the artist’s hometown of Florence, Italy.
The burglary was meticulously arranged and executed quickly. Five men, as it seems, drove forcefully through locked gates into Blenheim Palace’s grounds around 4:59am, using two stolen vehicles – an Isuzu truck and a VW Golf. They only stayed inside the building for about five minutes. Evidently, such a daring heist could not have been accomplished without extensive planning,” stated Prosecutor Julian Christopher KC.
As a gamer, I’d rephrase it like this: “I’ve learned that the guy they claim orchestrated a heist is Michael Jones, who’s standing trial at Oxford Crown Court. It’s said he popped by the palace on two occasions before pulling off the robbery. When faced with burglary charges, he pleaded innocent. His team allegedly consisted of three other men: Fred Doe, Bora Guck, and James Sheen, a construction worker who had hired Jones for a project. The others denied the accusations, but Sheen admitted to being part of the scheme. Reports indicate that the stolen toilet was chopped up and peddled as scrap metal to a jeweler in London’s Hatton Garden, according to The Art Newspaper.
It turns out that Cattelan’s 18-karat gold toilet has been stolen before – specifically, an earlier edition titled “America” was taken from the Blenheim Palace as far back as 2019.
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2025-02-26 00:55