Second casting of stolen gold toilet up for sale

A second solid gold toilet is to be auctioned off, after the first casting was stolen from Blenheim Palace in 2019.

America, created by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, is a fully functional toilet, fashioned from more than 15st 13lb (101.2kg) of solid 18-karat gold.

The first version of the work was initially installed in a public bathroom at the Guggenheim museum in New York in 2016 but hit the news again three years later when a gang of thieves stole it from Blenheim in Oxfordshire.

Now, the existence of a second golden toilet has been revealed which is due to go under the hammer at Sotheby's in New York City on 18 November.

It is estimated more than more than a 100,000 people used the first toilet while it was at the Guggenheim before it was moved and exhibited at Blenheim Palace.

It was there that in the early hours of 14 September 2019, five men smashed their way in, ripped out the £4.8m solid gold installation and fled in a stolen Volkswagen Golf.

The heist and the trial that followed made news across the world.

James Sheen, 40, from Oxford, pleaded guilty to burglary and transferring criminal property in 2024. Michael Jones, 39, from Oxford, was found guilty of burglary in March. Both were both jailed earlier this year.

Fred Doe, 36, from Windsor, was also convicted of conspiracy to transfer criminal property and given a suspended sentence.

Sotheby's has revealed that Cattelan created three toilets in 2016, with work number two now up for sale.

The second version will be on display in a bathroom at New York's Breuer Building until it goes under the hammer.

The auction house described it as a "cultural phenomenon" and an "incisive commentary on the collision of artistic production and commodity value".

David Galperin, head of contemporary art at Sotheby's New York, said: "America is Maurizio Cattelan's tour de force."

"Holding both a proverbial and literal mirror to the art world, the work confronts the most uncomfortable questions about art, and the belief systems held sacred to the institutions of the market and the museum," Mr Galperin explained.

The auction house said that in a world first, the starting bid on the artwork would be determined by the exact price of its weight in gold when the sale begins.

That means, if sold at today's rate, bidding on the solid gold toilet would begin at around $10m (£7.6m).