Six years later, two men have been sentenced for stealing the golden toilet by Maurizio Cattelan in England.
Titled “America” (2016), the work – a critique of the American society – first appeared at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In 2019, it was on display at the Blenheim Palace, which was the 18th-century ancestral home of Winston Churchill and his family. The work weighed 227 pounds (approx. 103 kgs) and was made of 18-carat gold.
On September 14, 2019, the work was stolen in a daring heist. CCTV footage showed that around 5 am, two vehicles rammed into the locked gates of Blenheim Palace, used sledgehammers to break into other doors, and dismantled the golden toilet. The entire heist was over in a matter of minutes.
However, subsequent investigation found that the robbers weren’t as clever as they seemed. Shaun Saunders of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Given the level of planning that enabled the raid to be carried out within five minutes, it was unusual that the offenders left such a trail of evidence in their wake. From phone messages to DNA traces found in a stolen car and on the sledgehammer used in the burglary, this wealth of evidence ultimately enabled us to secure their convictions.”
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James Sheen was identified as the mastermind of the heist who hatched the plan. He hired Michael Jones to stake the location and also be his accomplice during the heist. They were both found guilty previously, along with Frederick Doe, whom Sheen tried to sell the toilet at the rate of $34,500 per kg. Now, Sheen is sentenced to 4 years in jail, while Jones received a 27-month prison sentence.
