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Prosecution Service said Monday it has authorized crimi- nal charges against four men, ages 35-39, over the theft. They are accused of burglary and con- spiracy to transfer criminal property.
Seven people had been
arrested over the heist, but no charges have been brought until Monday, four years after the toi- let was stolen. The artwork has never been found.
The golden toilet was fully function- ing, and prior to the theft, visitors to the exhibition could book a three-minute appointment to use it. Police said that because the toilet had been connected to the
palace’s plumbing system, its removal caused “significant dam- age and flooding” to the 18th-centu- ry building, a UNESCO World Heritage site filled with valuable art and furniture that draws thousands of visitors each year.
The Guggenheim Museum in New York, where the artwork was installed in a bathroom prior to it being shown at Blenheim Palace, described the toi- let as “cast in 18- carat gold.”
The museum said the artwork invit- ed viewers to “make use of the fixture individually and privately” to experience “unprecedented intimacy with a work of art.”
In 2021, the Thames Valley Police, the force investigating the theft, suggested that it would be a “challenge” to recover the toilet.
“Will we ever see that toilet again? Personally I won- der if it’s in the shape of a toilet to be perfectly honest,” police and crime com- missioner Matthew Barber told the BBC. “If you have that large amount of gold I think it seems likely that someone has already managed to dispose of it one way or anoth- er.”
The four suspects will appear at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Nov. 28, pros- ecutors said.
By
Sylvia Hui
LONDON (AP) — Four men were charged Monday over the theft of an 18-carat gold toilet from Blenheim Palace, the sprawling English country mansion where British wartime
leader
Winston Churchill was born.
The toilet, valued at 4.8 million pounds ($5.95 million), was an artwork titled “America” and intended as a pointed satire about excessive wealth by Italian
con-
ceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan. It was part of an art installation at Blenheim Palace, near the city of Oxford, a few days before it vanished overnight in September 2019.
The Crown
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4 Men Charged In Theft of Satirical Golden Toilet Titled ‘America,’ At Churchill’s Birthplace