Flush with cash: solid gold toilet art piece titled 'America' fetches $12.1M at auction
Known for his provocative works, including taping a banana to a wall, Cattelan has described the piece as a commentary on superwealth: “Whatever you eat, a $200 lunch or a $2 hot dog, the results are the same, toilet-wise.”
At a New York auction Tuesday, a Gustav Klimt portrait set a record by selling for $236 million, while a fully functional, solid gold toilet created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan—satirizing the ultra-wealthy-sold for $12.1 million.
The toilet, titled "America," weighs 101 kilograms (223 pounds) and is made of 18-karat gold. It went on the block at Sotheby's with a starting bid around $10 million.
Known for his provocative works, including taping a banana to a wall, Cattelan has described the piece as a commentary on superwealth: "Whatever you eat, a $200 lunch or a $2 hot dog, the results are the same, toilet-wise." Sotheby's calls it an "incisive commentary on the collision of artistic production and commodity value."
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Earlier in the evening, Klimt's "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" sold after a 20-minute bidding war, becoming the most expensive artwork ever sold by Sotheby's.
The painting survived World War II intact and depicts the daughter of one of Klimt's patrons. It was part of the collection of billionaire Leonard A. Lauder, heir to The Estée Lauder Companies, who passed away earlier this year.
Cattelan made two versions of the toilet in 2016. One was displayed at New York's Guggenheim Museum and was infamously offered to President Donald Trump when he requested a Van Gogh.
That piece was later stolen in England from Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Winston Churchill. Two men were convicted in the theft, but the whereabouts of the toilet remain unknown, with investigators suspecting it may have been melted down.
The auctioned toilet "America" was displayed at Sotheby's New York in the weeks leading up to the sale.
