A fully functional 18-karat solid gold toilet created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan sold for a staggering $12.1 million at a Sotheby’s auction on Tuesday.
The gleaming 223-pound artwork, famously titled “America,” reignited conversations about wealth, satire, and the blurred lines between luxury and absurdity.
The auction opened with a starting bid of $10 million, reflecting current gold prices alone. Cattelan designed the toilet as a pointed critique of excessive American wealth, explaining that luxury ultimately makes no difference at “the least noble and most necessary place.”
“Whatever you eat, a $200 lunch or a $2 hot dog, the results are the same, toilet-wise,” Cattelan once joked.
Sotheby’s described the work more diplomatically as an “incisive commentary on the collision of artistic production and commodity value.”
Displayed at Sotheby’s -- but not for use this time
Before its sale, the golden toilet was temporarily installed at Sotheby’s New York headquarters for public viewing. Unlike previous showings, visitors were not allowed to use the piece.
“We don’t want people sitting on the art,” Sotheby’s expert David Galperin said.
Still, the toilet is fully functional -- and in earlier exhibitions, select visitors were indeed invited to “christen” it.
The piece had been owned by an unnamed collector ahead of the auction.
History of bold installations
Cattelan originally created two versions of the golden toilet in 2016. One appeared at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, where curators once cheekily offered it to President Donald Trump instead of the Van Gogh painting he requested.
Later, the toilet was exhibited at Blenheim Palace in England, where it was stolen overnight. Two men were convicted in the brazen theft, but investigators never recovered the artwork. Police eventually concluded it had been broken apart and melted down, similar to the jewels stolen from the Louvre in October.
Artist behind infamous duct-taped banana
Maurizio Cattelan is no stranger to controversy—or viral fame.
His most famous work, “Comedian,” featured a simple banana duct-taped to a wall. It became a global pop culture sensation and sold for $6 million.
The banana had to be replaced repeatedly -- sometimes because it spoiled naturally, and other times because passersby ate it as a performance gesture.
