This was the highlight of the attraction: “America”, the solid gold toilet by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan was stolen on Saturday, September 14, from Blenheim Palace, a country residence located in Woodstock in the Oxford country, in the south of England, and classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
A 66-year-old man has been arrested but the precious place of ease has not been found “for the moment”, according to local police. The 18-carat gold work includes operational seat, bowl and flush. Its value is estimated at about one million pounds (1.13 million euros). It was a flagship piece of the exhibition dedicated since Thursday to the iconoclast Maurizio Cattelan in the palace of the XVIIIe century, in Oxfordshire.
Work presented as egalitarian
By the time the exhibition closes on October 27, thousands of visitors could have relieved themselves in these toilets after booking a three-minute slot. The work is presented as egalitarian by the 58-year-old artist who claims that it is “from the art of the 1% (including the richest people on the planet) to the other 99 percent”.
“We knew that there was a huge interest in Maurizio Cattelan’s contemporary art exhibition”, Blenheim Palace responded in a statement posted on Twitter. “It is therefore a real pity that such a precious object has been stolen. »
Blenheim Palace belongs to the 12e Duke of Marlborough and saw the birth of the British statesman, Winston Churchill. In August, the Duke’s brother and founder of the Blenheim Art Foundation, Edward Spencer-Churchill, said he did not foresee special supervision for these toilets. “It won’t be the easiest thing to steal”, he had estimated in the daily The Times. “First of all, it is connected with plumbing. Then a potential thief will have no idea who used the toilet last or what he ate. So no, I’m not planning to keep her. »
Thief “broke into the palace during the night and left the premises at about 4:50 a.m.”, police said in a statement. “As the toilet was connected to the building plumbing, this caused significant damage and flooding”, said Detective Inspector Jesse Milne. Police believe the thieves used “at least two vehicles” to commit their mischief. Saying she had no knowledge of other works that had allegedly been stolen, she indicated at a press conference that she would analyze the images from the surveillance cameras.
The “America” toilet proposed to Donald Trump
The “America” toilet was first exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, where it was used by some 100,000 people between September 2016 and the summer of 2017. The toilet had made the news when US President Donald Trump was offered it on loan by the New York museum, after the curator refused to make available to him a painting by Vincent Van Gogh, as requested by the White House.
The castle is due to reopen on Sunday after being closed to the public on Saturday. Designed by British architect John Vanbrugh, it welcomes more than a million visitors every year, according to its website. It had been given by Queen Anne to the first Duke of Marlborough after his victory against the French at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704.
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