A solid gold toilet, valued at £4.8 million, was stolen in a daring burglary at Blenheim Palace in 2019, a UK court heard on Monday. The audacious heist, which lasted just five minutes, saw a group of masked thieves break into the historic home using sledgehammers.
The stolen toilet, an 18-carat gold piece titled America by renowned Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, was fully functional and had been installed as part of an art exhibition. However, prosecutors told Oxford Crown Court that the stolen artwork was most likely broken down into smaller pieces of gold, and it has never been recovered.
The court heard that Michael Jones, 39, from Oxford, denied charges of burglary. Meanwhile, Fred Doe, 36, from Windsor, and Bora Guccuk, 41, from London, pleaded not guilty to conspiring to transfer criminal property. The court was also informed that a fourth suspect, James Sheen, 40, from Northamptonshire, had already pleaded guilty to charges of burglary and money laundering in April of this year.
According to prosecutor Julian Christopher KC, the robbery took place in the early hours of September 14, 2019. Five men allegedly forced their way through the locked gates of Blenheim Palace using two vehicles, then smashed their way into the building with sledgehammers. The tools were later discovered abandoned at the scene.
“The artwork was never recovered. It appears to have been broken down into smaller amounts of gold and never found,” Christopher explained to the court.
A photograph shown in court, taken roughly 17 hours before the theft, allegedly showed Jones carrying out reconnaissance for the burglary. Evidence found on mobile phones belonging to Sheen, Doe, and Guccuk suggested that the stolen gold had been offered for sale, with negotiations indicating the gold was priced at £25,632 per kilogram. Guccuk, who ran a jewelry business in London’s Hatton Garden, reportedly made an estimated profit of £3,000 per kilogram from the sale.
The stolen toilet weighed 98kg and was insured for $6 million. At the time of the theft, the raw gold material alone was worth about £2.8 million.
Blenheim Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the birthplace of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, became the unlikely setting for this high-profile crime, which has left authorities grappling with the case as they search for the missing artwork.
