Maurizio Cattelan’s Golden Toilet “America” Goes to Auction – Starting Price Set at $10 Million
One of the most controversial artworks of the 21st century, an 18-karat solid gold toilet titled “America” by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, is heading to auction on November 18 at Sotheby’s, with a starting price literally measured in gold.
The initial price will not be fixed but will fluctuate based on the market value of gold at the time of the auction, estimated at nearly $10 million. Before the sale, America will be exhibited inside the restroom of Sotheby’s new headquarters — though, unlike past displays, visitors won’t be allowed to use it this time for security reasons.
When first exhibited in 2016 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the artwork drew massive attention. Over 100,000 visitors queued to experience what the museum described as “an unprecedented intimacy with art,” using the golden toilet just like any other.
Three years later, during an exhibition at Blenheim Palace — the historic birthplace of Winston Churchill — the piece was stolen in a daring five-minute heist. Thieves disconnected it from the plumbing system and vanished. Though several suspects were convicted, the original toilet, valued at around €6 million at the time, has never been recovered and is believed to have been melted down.
The version now going to auction is, according to Sotheby’s, the only remaining physical copy of the artwork in existence.
A Provocative Genius
Behind this provocative work stands Maurizio Cattelan, a self-taught Italian artist from Padua, celebrated as one of contemporary art’s most daring provocateurs. His sculptures and installations use dark humor and irony to question power structures, institutions, and the very nature of art itself.
Cattelan’s portfolio includes some of the most controversial pieces of modern art:
“The Ninth Hour” (1999) – a sculpture of Pope John Paul II struck by a meteorite.
“Him” (2001) – a kneeling wax figure of Adolf Hitler, sold for a record €15.9 million in 2016.
“Comedian” (2019) – a banana taped to a wall, which sold for over €6 million and was later eaten by its buyer, crypto billionaire Justin Sun.
America is seen as the counterpoint to Comedian — while the banana mocked how we assign value to something essentially worthless, the golden toilet inverts that logic, transforming an everyday object into one of undeniable material worth.
Cattelan himself described the work as a satire on wealth and excess, saying:
“Whatever you eat — a $200 lunch or a $2 hot dog — the results are the same when it comes to the toilet.”
Art Meets Satire
Experts have compared America to Marcel Duchamp’s 1917 masterpiece “Fountain”, a ready-made urinal that redefined what could be considered art. While Duchamp elevated an ordinary object by placing it in a gallery, Cattelan reversed the gesture — recreating the object in gold and restoring it to its original functional setting inside a museum bathroom.
Given its extraordinary history and intrinsic value, art analysts predict that America could set a new auction record for Cattelan — further cementing his status as one of the most provocative figures in modern art.
