A solid gold toilet, valued at £4.8 million, was stolen in a daring burglary at Blenheim Palace in 2019, as revealed in a UK court on Monday. The heist, executed in just five minutes, involved a gang of masked individuals who broke into the historic site using sledgehammers.
The 18-carat gold toilet, titled America, was a fully functional art installation by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and had been connected to the plumbing system as part of an art exhibition.
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Prosecutors at Oxford Crown Court stated that the stolen toilet was likely dismantled into smaller pieces of gold and has never been recovered.
Among the accused, Michael Jones (39) from Oxford denied the burglary charge, while Fred Doe (36) from Windsor and Bora Guccuk (41) from London pleaded not guilty to conspiring to transfer stolen property. The court also heard that a fourth suspect, James Sheen (40) from Northamptonshire, had already admitted to burglary and money laundering in April.
Prosecutor Julian Christopher KC detailed how, in the early hours of September 14, 2019, a group of five forced their way through the locked gates of Blenheim Palace using two vehicles. After smashing their way inside with sledgehammers, they fled, leaving the tools behind.
During the trial, the court was presented with a photograph allegedly taken by Jones just 17 hours before the crime, which prosecutors claimed was part of their burglary planning.
Evidence from the mobile phones of Sheen, Doe, and Guccuk reportedly contained discussions about selling 20kg of stolen gold, valued at £25,632 per kilo. Guccuk, a jewelry dealer from Hatton Garden, London, allegedly made £3,000 profit per kilo from these transactions.
The gold toilet, weighing 98kg, had been insured for $6 million. At the time of the robbery, its raw gold value alone was around £2.8 million.
Blenheim Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is globally recognized as the birthplace of Winston Churchill.
