Four individuals have been charged in connection with the theft of a gold toilet valued at £4.8 million, which disappeared from Blenheim Palace during an overnight raid in September 2019. The stolen art installation, titled “America,” was created by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan and had been part of an exhibition.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced on Monday that criminal charges had been authorized against the four men. They are scheduled to appear at Oxford magistrates court on November 28.
The stolen gold toilet, which could be used for three minutes at a time to minimize queues, had only been on display for two days when it was stolen. Its removal caused flooding and damage to the 18th-century stately home, a UNESCO world heritage site in Woodstock.
Originally exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2016, the toilet had gained popularity, with thousands of people queuing to use it. It was later moved to Blenheim Palace for Cattelan’s first solo show in the UK in over two decades.
At the time of the theft, Cattelan expressed hope that it was a prank and questioned the rationale behind stealing a toilet artwork titled “America.”
Blenheim Palace, the ancestral seat of the Duke of Marlborough, had previously suggested that the toilet would be challenging to steal because it was plumbed in and anonymous users made it an unattractive target for theft.
The four individuals charged are James Sheen, Michael Jones, Fred Doe, and Bora Guccuk, each facing various charges related to the burglary and conspiracy to transfer criminal property.
Senior Crown Prosecutor Shan Saunders emphasized the importance of not prejudicing the ongoing legal proceedings by sharing or reporting any information online that could influence the case.
