Group Found Guilty of Solid Gold Toilet Theft
Three men have been found guilty of stealing a solid gold toilet valued at $6.4 million from an English museum. On Tuesday, the jury at Oxford Crown Court convicted James Sheen, Michael Jones, and Frederick Doe of burglary at Blenheim Palace...
TroibNews 
Three men have been found guilty of stealing a solid gold toilet valued at $6.4 million from an English museum.
On Tuesday, the jury at Oxford Crown Court convicted James Sheen, Michael Jones, and Frederick Doe of burglary at Blenheim Palace in 2019.
This fully functional 18-carat toilet was designed by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York describes the artwork, titled America, as one that "offers a wink to the excesses of the art market but also evokes the American dream of opportunity for all."
Following its installation at the Guggenheim in 2016, over 100,000 visitors queued up to use the toilet. The artwork was removed from the museum a year later to be displayed at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.
Early one morning, the thieves broke into the palace and forcibly removed the toilet. The heist involved five individuals.
Prosecutor Shan Saunders indicated that the artwork was quickly “broken up or melted down and sold.” Unfortunately, the gold remains unrecovered.
“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 remarked during the court proceedings.
A gold toilet created by Maurizio Cattelan was displayed in the Guggenheim Museum in New York on September 16, 2016.
James del Carmen for TROIB News
On Tuesday, the jury at Oxford Crown Court convicted James Sheen, Michael Jones, and Frederick Doe of burglary at Blenheim Palace in 2019.
This fully functional 18-carat toilet was designed by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York describes the artwork, titled America, as one that "offers a wink to the excesses of the art market but also evokes the American dream of opportunity for all."
Following its installation at the Guggenheim in 2016, over 100,000 visitors queued up to use the toilet. The artwork was removed from the museum a year later to be displayed at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.
Early one morning, the thieves broke into the palace and forcibly removed the toilet. The heist involved five individuals.
Prosecutor Shan Saunders indicated that the artwork was quickly “broken up or melted down and sold.” Unfortunately, the gold remains unrecovered.
“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 remarked during the court proceedings.
A gold toilet created by Maurizio Cattelan was displayed in the Guggenheim Museum in New York on September 16, 2016.
James del Carmen for TROIB News
