What goes around comes around? It certainly did in the case of the Maurizio Cattelan golden toilet sculpture that was stolen in 2019 from the Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England. Once, Edward Spencer-Churchill, founder of the Blenheim Art Foundation, said the great golden lavatory, called ‘America’ wouldn’t be “the easiest thing to nick.” Clearly, the gang of seven that broke into Blenheim Palace at the break of dawn and ripped the solid-gold, fully functioning toilet out of the ground proved him wrong!
The toilet, an integral part of an exhibition by the Italian artist, was stolen right before his show opened. He lost the $6 million, 196-pound toilet, along with extensive damage to the wood-paneled lavatory. The space is located adjacent to the room where former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill was born. Nearly four years later, there is some good news related to America, the toilet, as police have continued to investigate and have sent a file to the Crown Prosecution Service with high hopes of closing the case.
Over time, officials have arrested seven suspects but haven’t formally charged anyone regarding the burglary. In 2021, Matthew Barber, police and crime commissioner for the Thames Valley, told the BBC that “recovering the toilet would be a challenge…If you have that large amount of gold, I think it seems likely that someone has already managed to dispose of it one way or another. It would be great if we can recover it and return it but personally, I’m not convinced it’s still in quite the same form it was.”
While capturing and charging the thieves may be possible, recovering the 18-carat golden toilet will be next to impossible. We agree with Scotland Yard’s Charlie Hill, the late art detective who acquiesced that the toilet may have been cut and melted to make jewelry.
