First Lady Melania Trump’s request to borrow a Vincent Van Gogh painting from the Guggenheim Museum was refused, but a curator did offer another work of art: A functional 18-karat gold toilet.
The curator at the Guggenheim responded to Trump’s request by offering to loan the White House a working toilet made of gold called “America,” according to The Washington Post.
The gold commode was available “should the President and First Lady have any interest in installing it in the White House,” curator Nancy Spector wrote in an email response to the White House, obtained by The Post.
According to the email, Trump had requested Van Gogh’s “Landscape with Snow,” but that work was “prohibited from travel except for the rarest of occasions,” Spector wrote. “We are sorry not to be able to accommodate your original request,” Spector said, “but remain hopeful that this special offer may be of interest.”
She included an illustration of the toilet, designed by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. Cattelan “would like to offer it to the White House for a long-term loan,” Spector, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, said in the email.
The Guggenheim had displayed “America” for some time, allowing tens of thousands of visitors to use the gilded toilet, but the museum offered to transport it to the White House along with instructions for how to use it. The museum had installed the toilet “for all to use in the privacy of one of the Guggenheim’s single-stall, gender-neutral bathrooms, Spector wrote in a blog post in 2017.
ALSO WATCH: Trump’s Trip To Davos
The piece resonated in the Trump era, as Trump had become “synonymous with golden toilets,” Spector wrote in the museum’s blog.
“It is, of course, extremely valuable and somewhat fragile, but we would provide all the instructions for its installation and care,” Spector wrote to the White House.
Cattelan told The Post that the offer was “a very delicate subject.” When a reporter asked why he offered the toilet to the Trumps, Cattelan said: “What’s the point of our life? Everything seems absurd until we die and then it makes sense.”
Follow Thomas Phippen on Twitter
Send tips to thomas@
The Daily Caller News Foundation is working hard to balance out the biased American media. For as little as $3, you can help us. Make a one-time donation to support the quality, independent journalism of TheDCNF. We’re not dependent on commercial or political support and we do not accept any government funding.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.