₹1,064,800,000: 18-karat solid gold functional toilet 'America' sold at a whopping sum at Sotheby's auction. Who bought it?

A solid gold toilet that was made by the same controversial artist who duct-taped a banana to a wall was sold for a staggering $12.1 million at a Sotheby’s auction on Tuesday. The satirical Maurizio Cattelan artwork was once offered to US President Donald Trump has become the talk of the town again after being sold at the auction.

The 18-karat gold toilet sculpture called "America" was made by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, is made of about 223 pounds of gold. It is flushable. Cattelan is known for viral artworks, like a duct-taped banana that sold for $6.2 million last year.

The toilet made its debut in 2016, consists of 101.2 kg, or about 223 pounds, of 18-karat gold and comes with a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist, according to Sotheby's. "Feeling flush?" the Sotheby's auctioneer asked while waiting for bidders. It's unclear who bought the toilet.


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Fully functional gold toilet sells for $12 million

The 223-pound toilet is entirely made up of 18-karat gold and had a starting bid of $10 million, which matched the current pricing for the precious metal, as per New York Post. The art, which functions just like a regular toilet and was even installed in Sotheby’s New York headquarters for public viewing before the auction, is intended to satirize excessive wealth in the US, Cattelan explained.

“Whatever you eat, a $200 lunch or a $2 hot dog, the results are the same, toilet-wise,” he once quipped. “America” was first shown in 2016 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, where visitors were allowed to use it. Another edition of this toilet was stolen in 2019 from Blenheim Palace in England and is believed to have been melted down.

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Sotheby’s described the piece as “an incisive commentary on the collision of artistic production and commodity value.” Before the auction, the toilet was displayed in a bathroom at Sotheby’s New York headquarters, though visitors were not allowed to use it.

Cattelan added that he wanted to put something priceless in “the least noble and most necessary place” to demonstrate the connection between high form and base functionality. Visitors weren’t permitted to actually use the toilet while it was on display, though users have been invited to christen it previously. “We don’t want people sitting on the art,” Sotheby’s expert David Galperin said.

An unnamed collector owned the gold toilet before the auction. Artist Maurizio Cattelan created two such pieces in 2016, and one was briefly displayed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. While the museum still had the artwork, it jokingly offered to lend it to President Donald Trump after he made an unusual request to borrow a Van Gogh painting. Cattelan is also known for “Comedian,” a piece that shows a banana taped to a wall. The work quickly became a global pop culture hit and sold for $6 million. The banana in the artwork had to be replaced several times because it either rotted or was eaten by visitors.

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