Are you looking for that truly special present that no one else will be giving this holiday season? And do you have at least $10 million dollars to spend on this item that delivers a royal flush on both form and function? Then have I got the gift for you! Behold, America. This 216-pound, solid 18 karat gold sculpture by Maurizio Cattelan is not merely a fully operating toilet, it is ART! And it has quite the storied provenance: after first going on display in 2016 at the Guggenheim in New York, the piece traveled to Southern England to be exhibited at Winston Churchill’s home Blenheim Place in 2019. Both locations invited visitors to use the facilities, if you know what I mean.
From there things took a nasty turn, though, when later that year thieves absconded with the art/toilet (again, the thing is over 200 pounds). Luckily, the uncommon commode was recovered and the criminals faced trial. So now America has come full flush cycle, back to New York where it is set to be auctioned at Sotheby’s on November 18, nearly a year to the date that Cattelan’s work Comedian (a banana duct-taped to a wall) sold from the same auction house for $6.2 million (before being ingested by the new owner). That’s unCANny timing, if you ask me!
If you’ve ever dreamed of owning a solid 18 karat gold toilet, now might be your chance.
“America,” the fully working solid gold toilet sculpture created by artist Maurizio Cattelan is heading to auction at Sotheby’s for the first time ever. Bidding is set to start at roughly $10 million, give or take a little, depending on the price of gold when the auction begins on Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. in New York City, where Sotheby’s is newly headquartered.
Art is subjective, which has rarely been more obvious than in discussions surrounding Cattelan’s work. Cattelan is the same artist behind “Comedian,” the duct-taped banana that crypto financier Justin Sun purchased in 2024 for $6.2 million.
“This is not just an artwork; it represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community,” Sun told The New York Times last year. “I believe this piece will inspire more thought and discussion in the future and will become a part of history.”
Cattelan created a pair of the golden toilets in 2016. One was sold to a private collector, and the second was installed at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum that same year, where more than 100,000 visitors actually used the functioning toilet.
The toilet was later loaned to Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, England where it was stolen by thieves in a shockingly bold heist. They not only removed the piece from its plumbing, but even managed to cause a flood in the room where it had been on display.
Security footage shown at the burglars’ trial displayed two vehicles driving through the Great Courtyard, and even showed one burglar leaving the museum with the golden toilet seat. The work was ultimately recovered. Prosecutors spent four years working on the case before officially charging the thieves, and two were found guilty by a jury. A third was acquitted.
At the time, Cattelan said that while the burglary wasn’t “exactly the heist of the century,” it was “one of the most bizarre.”
With the auction on the horizon, Sotheby’s hopes the toilet will help breathe much-needed life into the world of contemporary art, which has seen a supply greatly outweigh demand in recent years.
“It started from something very practical: in a museum there are many sacred spaces, and only one that never is: the bathroom,” said Cattelan.
“Sotheby’s hopes the toilet will help breathe much-needed life into the world of contemporary art, which has seen a supply greatly outweigh demand in recent years.” Ooh, I think I can solve this one! Maybe the contemporary art world would bounce back if the artists produced something other than, well, produce? Or supplies available for purchase at Lowe’s? Just a suggestion! Anyway, I may have teased the idea of America-the-toilet being a unique holiday gift, but I think we all know there’s really only one place this gold throne belongs. In our coverage of the new and unasked for marble-and-gold renovation of the Lincoln bathroom, one of you lovely commenters noted, “all that marble and those tacky-ass gold fixtures and they install a builder-grade Glacier Bay toilet from Home Depot?” The solution is obvious, non? Like they say: in for a penny, in for a 216-pound gold toilet.
Photos credit: KIKA/Wenn/Avalon, Ferrari – Look/Look Press/Avalon, Getty