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America (Cattelan)

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America
Golden toilet
America at the Guggenheim Museum in 2017
ArtistMaurizio Cattelan
Year2016
MediumGold sculpture
ConditionLost

America was a sculpture created in 2016 by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. An example of satirical participatory art,[1] it was a fully functioning toilet made of 18-karat solid gold.[1][2]

It was stolen in 2019 from Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England, where it was exhibited on loan from the permanent collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, United States. Authorities believe the thieves broke it up or melted it down to sell the gold. In 2025 three local men were convicted of its theft.[3]

History

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Guggenheim Museum exhibition

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Cattelan created it in 2016 for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, United States. It was made in a foundry in Florence, Italy, cast in several parts that were welded together. Made to look like the museum's other Kohler Co. toilets, it was installed in one of the lavatories for visitors to use.[4][5] A special cleaning routine was put in place.[6] The museum stated that the work was paid for with private funds.[7]

According to the museum, over 100,000 people waited in line to use America, and a security guard was posted outside the room. According to Cattelan the work was made of 103 kilograms (227 lb) of gold, which in September 2019 was valued at more than US$4 million as bullion.[5][8] As an artwork, it has been estimated as high as six million.[9]

In September 2017 the museum declined a request from the White House to loan Landscape with Snow by Vincent van Gogh for the private rooms of Donald Trump, then the president of the United States. Nancy Spector, the curator, offered to loan America instead. Any reply by the White House was not reported.[8]

Loan to Blenheim Palace and theft

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In September 2019 America was installed at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England, where it was available for use as part of an exhibition of Cattelan's works.[10] It was placed in a lavatory formerly used by Winston Churchill.[11]

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On 14 September 2019 it was stolen from Blenheim Palace. A representative of the palace previously said that because America was plumbed in, and potential thieves would be aware of its use, security was not much of an issue.[12] Because it had been connected to the water pipes, the theft caused structural damage and flooding to the palace, which has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.[13][14]

Cattelan said, "I always liked heist movies and finally I'm in one of them."[15] Blenheim's insurance company said that up to approximately US$124,000 could be paid in reward for the return of the toilet.

In November 2023 the Crown Prosecution Service charged four men with the theft.[16] By April 2024 one them, James Sheen,[3] serving a 17-year sentence for several thefts, had pleaded guilty.[17][18] In March 2025 two local men, Michael Jones and Frederick Doe, were found guilty at trial for planning the robbery and helping to sell the gold.[3] A fourth suspect was acquitted. Authorities believe the toilet was broken up or melted down.[3]

Local imitations of it have been made, including one that was itself stolen.[19][20]

Interpretation

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Marcel Duchamp's 1917 sculpture Fountain

The Guggenheim museum linked the meaning of the sculpture to the career of Donald Trump, writing in September 2016[21] that "the aesthetics of this 'throne' recall nothing so much as the gilded excess of Trump's real-estate ventures and private residences".[4] Cattelan himself declined to give an interpretation of his work, which he conceived of before Trump's campaign in the 2016 US presidential election.[8] He said that the connection to Trump is "another layer, but it shouldn’t be the only one."[21]

The work has also been described as an interpretation of Marcel Duchamp's 1917 sculpture Fountain.[22] The art critic Calvin Tomkins called it Cattelan's most beautiful artwork, and said "for viewers who crave a one-to-one relationship with art, this piece cannot be topped."[6] The art critic Jonathan Jones, using the work at Blenheim Palace, opined that it felt "Much like peeing on porcelain. But here, among all the photos of young Winston, it also feels like pissing on British history." He also found it reminiscent of Boris Johnson's hair.[23]

Other gold toilets

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There is evidence that some wealthy ancient Romans used gold chamber pots,[24] though no examples are known to have survived.

Bayan Palace is fitted with gold toilets; they were temporarily removed during the Gulf War.[25] In the 1970s a sanitation firm began offering solid gold toilet seats after receiving a special order from a customer who wanted one as an investment.[26]

In 2002 Winger Lam Sai-wing [zh], a Hong Kong businessman, included two gold toilets in what he called a shrine to Vladimir Lenin. He referred to a comment by Lenin[a] about building public toilets of gold after the global victory of socialism.[28] In 2019 the Hong Kong jewellery firm Coronet displayed a gold toilet in Shanghai, China. This toilet had a bulletproof seat containing more than 40,000 small diamonds.[29][30]

Cattelan said he made three gold toilets.[19]

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  • Top view
    Top view
  • Side view
    Side view

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Maurizio Cattelan: "America"". Guggenheim. 12 May 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
  2. ^ Wise, Louis (25 August 2019). "Maurizio Cattelan interview: the enigmatic Italian artist on his golden loo". The Times. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
  3. ^ a b c d Quinn, Ben (18 March 2025). "Two men found guilty over £4.8m Oxfordshire gold toilet heist". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 19 March 2025.
  4. ^ a b Gabbatt, Adam (16 September 2016). "On the throne: what it's like to use the Guggenheim's solid gold toilet". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  5. ^ a b "Golden, Going Gone: 18-Karat Gold Toilet Is Stolen". The New York Times. 14 September 2019. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  6. ^ a b Tomking, Calvin (14 September 2016). "Gold Toilet". The New Yorker. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  7. ^ Kennedy, Randy (19 April 2016). "Duchamp, Eat Your Heart Out: The Guggenheim Is Installing a Gold Toilet". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
  8. ^ a b c Schwartzman, Paul (25 January 2018). "The White House asked to borrow a van Gogh. The Guggenheim offered a gold toilet instead". The Washington Post. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  9. ^ "Artist pans claims he orchestrated theft of solid gold toilet". The Guardian. 15 September 2019. Retrieved 15 September 2019. Initial reports had said the golden toilet was worth an estimated £1m, but Blenheim Palace's chief executive, Dominic Hare, said it has been valued at about $6m (£4.8m).
  10. ^ Brown, Mark (3 May 2019). "Flushed with success: solid-gold toilet to be installed at Blenheim". The Guardian.
  11. ^ "Maurizio Cattelan Has Installed His Golden Toilet in the Stately Bathroom Where Winston Churchill Once Sat". artnet News. 13 September 2019. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
  12. ^ "Busted flush: gold toilet reportedly stolen from Blenheim Palace". The Guardian. 14 September 2019. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  13. ^ Emily Dixon; Augusta Anthony (14 September 2019). "Solid gold toilet stolen from Blenheim Palace". CNN Style. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
  14. ^ "Golden toilet worth £1m stolen from Churchill ancestral home". The Independent. 14 September 2019. Archived from the original on 17 September 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  15. ^ "Artist behind £4.8m gold toilet praises thieves who have taken it". Sky News. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
  16. ^ Davies, Caroline (6 November 2023). "Four men charged over theft of £4.8m gold toilet from Blenheim Palace". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  17. ^ Harland, Gee (19 January 2024). "Trial date set for men who deny stealing £4.8m gold toilet from Blenheim Palace". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  18. ^ Stenson, Clodagh (2 April 2024). "Golden Toilet: Man pleads guilty to Blenheim Palace burglary". BBC. Retrieved 19 February 2025.
  19. ^ a b Marshall, Alex (20 November 2019). "What Happened to the Stolen Gold Toilet?". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
  20. ^ Cassady, Daniel (29 August 2023). "UK Police Make 'Major Breakthrough' in Search for Stolen Maurizio Cattelan Toilet". ARTnews.
  21. ^ a b Dover, Caitlin (15 September 2016). "Game of Throne: Maurizio Cattelan's "America" Comes to the Guggenheim". Guggenheim. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  22. ^ Carrier, David (2018). Aesthetic Theory, Abstract Art, and Lawrence Carroll. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 64. ISBN 9781350009578. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
  23. ^ Jones, Jonathan (13 September 2019). "Hitler in Churchill's birthplace more shocking than the golden toilet – Maurizio Cattelan review". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  24. ^ Hoss, Stefanie (31 January 2018). Latrinae: Roman Toilets in the Northwestern Provinces of the Roman Empire. Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. p. 127. ISBN 9781784917265.
  25. ^ Eagleton, Thomas (11 April 1991). "Freedom for Kuwait: gold toilets". The Grand Rapids Press. Retrieved 25 April 2025.
  26. ^ "How to beat inflation: Buy gold and sit tight". The Miami News. Reuters News Service. 24 December 1974. Retrieved 25 April 2025.
  27. ^ "The Importance Of Gold Now And After The Complete Victory Of Socialism". www.marxists.org. Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  28. ^ "Hong Kong gold toilet shrine to Lenin a 'dream come true'". South China Morning Post. 2002. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  29. ^ "A lot of people can 'enjoy' this $1.3 million diamond studded gold toilet — but in a museum". Business Insider. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  30. ^ Jain, Sanya (29 November 2019). "Solid Gold Toilet, Set With Over 40,000 Diamonds, Captivates The Internet". NDTV. Retrieved 14 November 2021.

Notes

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  1. ^ "When we are victorious on a world scale I think we shall use gold for the purpose of building public lavatories in the streets of some of the largest cities of the world."[27]
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