(Image source: X/@Sothebys)
A solid gold toilet — the satirical Maurizio Cattelan artwork once offered to US President Donald Trump — became the talk of the art world again on Tuesday when it sold for $12.1 million at Sotheby’s New York.The 18-karat, fully functional sculpture, titled America, weighs more than 220 pounds and opened bidding at $10 million. The auction took place during what Sotheby’s described as a “soft patch” for top-tier art sales, Forbes reported.Created by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, America has a history as striking as its materials. The work first drew widespread attention in 2016 when it was installed in a public bathroom at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, attracting nearly 100,000 visitors. The toilet also became a pop-culture curiosity when the Guggenheim, after the Trump White House requested a Van Gogh painting, offered the gold toilet instead, an overtly satirical counteroffer that went unanswered.Sotheby’s describes the piece as an “incisive commentary on the collision of artistic production and commodity value.” Cattelan himself has said the work mocks extreme wealth, noting: “Whether you eat a $200 lunch or a $2 hot dog, the results are the same, toilet-wise,” CNN reported. Another edition of the gold toilet was stolen in 2019 in a dramatic heist at Blenheim Palace, Winston Churchill’s birthplace. Thieves used sledgehammers to detach it from its plumbing. Although two men were eventually convicted, the sculpture was never recovered and is believed to have been melted down.Cattelan has previously said he created more than one edition of the piece.Tuesday’s auction also included major works from the late cosmetics billionaire Leonard Lauder’s collection. Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer sold for $236.3 million, while Blumenwiese and Waldabhang bei Unterach am Attersee fetched $86 million and $70.6 million respectively, according to Forbes.A day earlier, a Mark Rothko abstract from the collection of the late Weis Market chairman Robert F Weis and his wife Patricia sold for $62.1 million, bringing the total for that collection to $218 million.
