On September 12, 2019, Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan’s 18-carat solid
gold work of art with an estimated value of up to $6.5 million was put on display at
Blenheim Palace, the English country mansion where Winston Churchill was born.
Unlike many art pieces which exist only as a work of art to be admired, Maurizio’s
creation had a function. It served a purpose while being a work of art. Maurizio’s
creation had already impressed audiences at the Guggenheim Museum in New
York where a reported 100,000 people had waited to take their turn using
Maurizio’s creation. For two days, the artwork had been impressing the visitors to
the sprawling mansion in the same manner when something unexpected happened.
Before daylight on the morning of September 14, 2019, five masked thieves in two
stolen cars drove through a wooden barrier fence and onto Blenheim Palace
grounds. They sped up to the palace where three of the thieves exited the cars.
The two getaway drivers remained in their stolen cars and kept the engines
running. The three thieves quickly broke into the mansion and ran directly to
Maurizio’s creation. It took the strength of all three men to rip Maurizio’s 215-
pound creation from the wooden floor on which it had been mounted and to carry it
to one of the waiting cars. They loaded it into the hatchback of one of the cars and
the thieves sped away. Blenheim Palace’s security cameras captured the heist on
video and their security system alerted police, but the thieves were gone by the
time police arrived. Of all of the art on display in the antique-filled mansion,
Maurizio’s creation was the only item stolen.
The thieves had carefully planned the heist. They knew the palace had a good
security system, but no other precautions had been put into place to protect the
piece. After the artwork was installed in the palace, Edward Spencer-Churchill,
chairman of Blenheim Strategic Partners and direct descendent of Winston
Churchill, told the York News-Times that the artwork would not be easy to steal
since it was physically connected to the palace, and added, “So, no. I don’t plan to
be guarding it.”
Another representative of Blenheim Palace tweeted, “We knew there was huge
interest in the Maurizio Cattelan contemporary art exhibition, with many set to
come and enjoy the installations. It’s therefore a great shame an item so precious
has been taken, but we still have so many fascinating treasures in the Palace and
the remaining items of the exhibition to share.”
Several men have been convicted in the theft and disposal of Maurizio’s creation,
but the artwork has never been recovered. Most recently, on May 19, 2025, a man
was convicted for trying to help a burglar sell scrap gold believed to have been
from Maurizio’s creation.
Maurizio intended the artwork to be a pointed satire about excessive wealth.
Before the artwork was stolen, Maurizio explained, “Whatever you eat, a $200
lunch or a $2 hot dog, the results are the same.” You see, Maurizio Cattelan’s
stolen 215-pound artwork made from 18-karat solid gold was a fully functioning,
fully plumbed toilet.
Sources:
1. York News-Times, September 17, 2019, p.A2.
2. The Guardian, April 3, 2024, p.13.
3. Brian Melley, “Man who tried to sell $6.4m gold toilet stolen from English
country house is spared jail,” AP News, May 19, 2025, accessed May 27,
2025, https://apnews.com/article/britain-gold-toilet-theft-court-trial-
sentence-3a3955da078af343596606e07addc305.