Maurizio Cattelan’s Solid Gold Toilet “America” Heads to Sotheby’s Auction

Sotheby’s will auction a fully functional toilet made from solid gold on November 18 in New York. Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan created the work, titled “America,” as a sharp commentary on excessive wealth. The auction house has set the starting bid at $10 million, which reflects the current market value of the 223 pounds (101.2 kg) of gold used to make it.

Maurizio Cattelan has built a career on creating valuable and provocative art. His piece, “Comedian,” a banana duct-taped to a wall, sold for $6.2 million in 2023. The golden toilet continues its tradition of challenging the art market’s valuation system. Cattelan once stated that the work satirises wealth, noting, “Whatever you eat, a $200 lunch or a $2 hot dog, the results are the same, toilet-wise.”

This version of “America” comes from a private collection, but its twin has a more dramatic public history. In 2016, the Guggenheim Museum installed it in a public restroom, where over 100,000 people waited in line to use it. The museum later famously offered the functional artwork to the White House during the Trump administration.

Will an 18-karat gold toilet from the artist behind the duct-tape banana bonanza make collectors feel flush? Sotheby’s is about to find out.

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— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) November 1, 2025

In 2019, thieves stole the Guggenheim’s version from an exhibition at England’s Blenheim Palace. They ripped the toilet from its plumbing, and authorities never recovered it. Investigators believe the thieves likely melted down the gold.

Read: Gold toilet opens for business in New York

David Galperin, Sotheby’s Head of Contemporary Art, highlights the unique value proposition of “America.” He calls it the perfect inverse of Cattelan’s banana artwork. While “Comedian” had almost no intrinsic material value, “America” possesses immense worth in its raw materials. The auction will directly test what proportion of the price comes from the artistic idea versus the commodity of gold.

The golden toilet will go on public display at Sotheby’s New York headquarters from November 8. Visitors can view the artwork in a bathroom setting, but unlike previous exhibitions, they cannot use it.