Four men face charges related to the 2019 theft of an 18-carat gold toilet from Blenheim Palace in England, the birthplace of Winston Churchill, the Associated Press reported Monday.
The toilet, an artwork titled “America” by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and valued at 4.8 million pounds ($5.95 million), was part of an exhibition at the palace near Oxford. The Crown Prosecution Service announced Monday that the men, aged 35 to 39, are accused of burglary and conspiracy to transfer criminal property in the 2019 incident, according to the AP.
Seven individuals were initially arrested in connection with the heist, but this is the first time charges have been filed. The stolen artwork, which has not been recovered, was a fully functional toilet which exhibition visitors could use by booking a three-minute appointment. Its removal during the theft caused significant damage and flooding to the 18th-century UNESCO World Heritage site, the outlet noted.
Four men charged over Blenheim Palace gold toilet theft https://t.co/VMrUlzbii5
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) November 6, 2023
“Its participatory nature, in which viewers are invited to make use of the fixture individually and privately, allows for an experience of unprecedented intimacy with a work of art,” the Guggenheim Museum in New York, where the artwork was previously displayed, described it. (RELATED: Man Facing Charges In 13-Year Theft Of Judy Garland’s Ruby Slippers)
Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Barber expressed doubts about the stolen artwork’s fate, according to a 2021 interview with the BBC.
“Will we ever see that toilet again? Personally I wonder if it’s in the shape of a toilet to be perfectly honest,” Barber told the BBC in 2021. “If you have that large amount of gold I think it seems likely that someone has already managed to dispose of it one way or another.”
The four suspects are scheduled to appear at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Nov. 28, the AP noted.