Cattelan's £4.8m gold toilet stolen in five minute raid and split into smaller parts, court hears

The infamous, fully functioning, 18-carat gold toilet (America, 2016) was stolen from Blenheim Palace, UK
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Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous gold toilet was stolen from Blenheim Palace, UK, in 2019 in a raid lasting just five minutes, a prosecuting lawyer said earlier this week at the trial of three men charged with the theft.
Cattelan’s fully functioning 18-carat gold toilet (America, 2016) was removed from an exhibition of the Italian artist's work at the 18th-century stately home in September 2019. The toilet was insured for £4.8m.
Michael Jones, 39, is standing trial at Oxford Crown Court charged with one count of burglary, to which he has pleaded not guilty. Fred Doe, 36, and Bora Guccuk, 40, are charged with one count of conspiracy to convert or transfer criminal property, namely gold, which they deny. A fourth man James Sheen, 39, has previously pleaded guilty to burglary. The trial is expected to last four weeks.
Prosecutor Julian Christopher KC said: “The burglary was carefully planned and swiftly carried out. The men, five of them it appears, drove through locked wooden gates into the grounds of Blenheim Palace shortly before 5am in two stolen vehicles, an Isuzu truck and a VW Golf. All in all they spent just five minutes in the building. Clearly such an audacious raid would not have been possible without lots of preparation.”
According to Christopher, Jones allegedly visited the palace twice in the weeks leading up to the theft, once before the toilet went on display and once after the piece was installed and fully functional as an exhibit. He added that the toilet was never recovered and appears to have been split up into smaller amounts of gold. Two of the men were using “car” as a codeword for the stolen gold and contact was made with a Hatton Garden jeweller, said Christopher.
Visitors to the exhibition had to book time slots to use the toilet which was installed in the guides' bathrooms at the palace; the golden loo was previously on view at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Cattelan told The New York Times after the robbery: "America was the one percent for the 99 percent, and I hope it still is. I want to be positive and think the robbery is a kind of Robin Hood-inspired action. I wish it was a prank."
Man arrested after 18-carat lavatory was forcibly removed from Blenheim Palace
This unlikely grouping is part of an astonishing story involving New York’s Guggenheim Museum

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