$10 MILLION GOLD TOILET ARTWORK HITS SOTHEBY’S
16 November,2025
News article based on Sotheby’s Media release generated using Gemini AI
NEW YORK, NY—Prepare for the ultimate clash of art, opulence, and sheer absurdity! Maurizio Cattelan’s notorious, fully functional 18-karat solid gold toilet, America, is set to shatter the art world once again as it goes under the hammer at Sotheby’s on November 18th. This isn’t just a piece of plumbing; it’s a 100-kilogram gilded symbol of excess and one of the century’s most infamous artworks!
SHOCKING STARTING PRICE—It’s Tied to the Gold Market!
In an unprecedented move, Sotheby’s is stripping away the pretense of “artistic value” and starting the bidding for the gleaming lavatory based purely on its staggering physical weight in gold! With the metal’s price constantly fluctuating, the starting bid—already a jaw-dropping $10 MILLION (as of October 31, 2025, for its 101.2kg weight)—will rise or fall with the market until the hammer falls. This is a high-stakes, golden gamble!
And for the final, dizzying twist? Sotheby’s is ready to accept CRYPTO for the payment! The wealthy elite can now flush their digital fortunes down a literal gold drain!
“America is Maurizio Cattelan’s tour de force… It confronts the most uncomfortable questions about art,” declares David Galperin, Head of Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s New York. Uncomfortable? Try scandalous!
FROM GUGGENHEIM TO GRAND LARCENY!
America has a history as rich and audacious as its material.
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The Line-Up of Luxury: When it debuted at the Guggenheim Museum, over 100,000 people queued for an “unprecedented intimacy”—a chance to use a $10 million toilet! Yes, they lined up for a gilded bathroom break!
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The Heist of the Century: Its fame exploded into a true-crime saga in 2019 when it was brazenly STOLEN from Blenheim Palace, the ancestral home of Winston Churchill! Thieves ripped the 18-karat fixture from its pipework in a dramatic overnight raid! The other version has never been recovered, presumed melted down for its raw, obscene value.
This is the only extant version! The last chance to own a piece of art history—and criminal legend!
The World’s Most Expensive Toilet !
Cattelan, the same “conceptual genius” who sold a banana duct-taped to a wall (Comedian) for a cool $6.2 million, is back to mock the millionaires.
The artwork’s sheer opulence—a banal toilet made of solid gold—is a blatant, shimmering challenge to an art world obsessed with subjective value. Cattelan has forced the market to confront its own absurdity: is the toilet valuable because it’s art, or simply because it’s 100 kilograms of GOLD?!
The final act of this golden spectacle will unfold at the iconic Breuer Building in New York on November 18th. Who will be the desperate, crypto-toting collector willing to pay an astronomical, market-fluctuating fortune for the right to own this blinding, controversial, and deeply ironic symbol of wealth?