Weighing 100kg Golden Toilet Auction Appears...Starting price is 14.7 billion won
Nov 18, 2025
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According to Sotheby's auction, an 18-carat gold toilet made by Italian contemporary artist Maurizio Cattelan will be auctioned at 9 a.m. on the 19th (local time).
The starting price of the work, which weighs 100 kilograms alone and can actually be used, is set at about $10 million (about 14.7 billion won).
Cattelan is also known for his work 'Comedian' that taped bananas to the wall, and the work was sold for $6.2 million (about 9 billion won).
He said of the piece `We are all the same after all. It reminds me of that fact in the least noble but most essential space,' he told the Wall Street Journal.
The Golden Toilet 'America' was first installed in 2016 and sold to private collectors the following year.
Since then, the Guggenheim Museum in New York has received great attention as it has been unveiled for more than 100,000 visitors to actually use it.
Another piece from the same series was stolen from Blenheim Palace in England in 2019.
The work loaned to Blenheim Palace was stolen within days of its installation, and two men were convicted earlier this year, but the work has yet to be recovered and possibly melted.
'America' was worth about $2 million (about 2.9 billion won) when it was first released, and was more than doubled at the time of theft due to rising gold prices. The remaining twin works are known to have much higher value than that.
Sotheby's said "This work is not just a sight to behold" Cattelan is one of the greatest artists of our time, and this work is one of his masterpieces".
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
