2023-11-28 16:21:13
Made of 18-carat gold – and it might even be used. A very special toilet took center stage at exhibitions in New York and England. And then suddenly it was gone, stolen. Now the sensational case is coming to court. The toilet itself has disappeared.
A toilet made of 18-carat gold, worth around 5.5 million euros. But no, he did not plan to have the toilet guarded, Edward Spencer-Churchill once emphasized. The part is difficult to steal anyway. “Firstly,” the founder of the Blenheim Art Foundation told the Sunday Times in August 2019, “it is connected. And secondly, a potential thief has no idea who last used the toilet or what they ate.” In fact, he is happy to do his business there. “Although I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I have never shit on a gold toilet” – literal quote – “.”
Four men appeared in court on Tuesday
Just a few weeks later, the Duke of Marlborough’s half-brother may have regretted his joke. Because the special toilet – a fully functional work of art by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan – was actually gone. Stolen. Just two days following the opening of a Cattelan exhibition at Blenheim Palace, the family’s ancestral home.
A good four years following the crime in the early morning of September 14, 2019, four men appeared in court in Oxford on Tuesday. The British Crown Prosecution Service accuses them of stealing the work of art called “America”. There was also considerable damage to property in the palace – due to flooding. The men will remain at large until the next meeting on January 4th.
The theft caused a stir not only because of Spencer-Churchill’s naive announcement. Blenheim Palace near Oxford isn’t just any mansion either. Winston Churchill, who later became Prime Minister, World War II victor and Nobel Prize winner, was born here on November 30, 1874. The gold toilet was on display opposite his birth room. Visitors were even allowed to use it. But please only take a maximum of three minutes to avoid queues.
People queued for hours to use the toilet
The Blenheim Palace show was not the first to feature the gold toilet. The toilet was already on display in New York’s Guggenheim Museum in 2016. For many visitors, the toilet was a must; 100,000 people queued, sometimes for hours, to use “America” in person. The museum also offered the art object to the then US President Donald Trump, who was said to be fond of ostentation. He had gold curtains hung in the White House, but he did not accept the gold toilet.
The court is also likely to be regarding what became of the gold toilet. There are no clues. The act is reminiscent of the theft of a 100 kilogram gold coin from Berlin’s Bode Museum in 2017. Here as there, the thieves are likely to have long since broken up the object or melted it down.
Dominic Hare, head of Blenheim Palace, called the theft “senseless.” His hope: the act will make the work of art immortal. Artist Cattelan reacted similarly irritated at the time. “Who’s stupid enough to steal a toilet?” Then he remembered that the toilet was made of gold.
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