Maurizio Cattelan, the Italian artist famous for his duct-taped banana that sold for $6.2 million, is now auctioning off another unusual artwork: a toilet made entirely of solid gold that actually works.
Sotheby’s will auction off a solid 18-karat gold sculpture called ‘America,’ with bidding starting at about $10 million. The sculpture, which is actually a fully functional toilet weighing 223 pounds, will be on display at Sotheby’s in New York City before the November 18th sale, but visitors won’t be able to use it – only view it.
According to Sotheby’s specialist David Galperin, the auction house will accept cryptocurrency, but they’ve asked visitors not to sit on the artwork, as he told the Wall Street Journal.
Maurizio Cattelan’s sculpture ‘America’ will be auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York this November. In a unique approach, bidding will start at a price equal to the sculpture’s weight in gold on the day of the auction.
— Sotheby’s (@Sothebys) October 31, 2025
Golden Toilet to fetch $10million at auction
In 2016, artist Maurizio Cattelan created America as a statement about wealth, social advantage, and the often-strange ways we assign value to art. He’d previously explored similar themes with his famous installation Comedian – a banana taped to a wall that captured the public’s imagination. Cattelan explained that he aimed to put “something glamorous and costly in an unexpected location,” suggesting that “ultimately, we’re all equal, and we realize that in the most ordinary, even unglamorous, places.”
The initial display of ‘America’ was at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, allowing visitors to interact with it while staff observed. A subsequent installation at Blenheim Palace in England, in 2019, was stolen and remains lost; authorities suspect it was melted down for its gold content.
The current owner of the toilet, a private collector who bought it in 2017, is now seeing if people are still interested in its satirical message – and whether Maurizio Cattelan’s statement about wealth and excess can be valued higher than the gold it’s made of.
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2025-11-01 16:48