The artwork by Maurizio Cattelan was broken apart and never recovered, the prosecutor said
Three men have been convicted of stealing a $6.4 million solid gold toilet from an English museum.
On Tuesday, the jury at Oxford Crown Court found James Sheen, Michael Jones, and Frederick Doe guilty of committing burglary at Blenheim Palace in 2019.
The fully functional 18-carat toilet was created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. According to the description from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the artwork named America “offers a wink to the excesses of the art market but also evokes the American dream of opportunity for all.”
More than 100,000 people lined up to use the toilet after it was first installed in Guggenheim in 2016, according to the museum. The artwork left the Guggenheim a year later and was exhibited in the Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.
The thieves broke into the palace early in the morning and ripped out the toilet. Five people participated in the heist.
Prosecutor Shan Saunders said that the artwork was quickly “broken up or melted down and sold.” The gold was never recovered.
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“This was an audacious raid which had been carefully planned and executed – but those responsible were not careful enough, leaving a trail of evidence in the form of forensics, CCTV footage and phone data,” Saunders told the court.
© Christina Horsten / picture alliance / Getty Images
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