When something so simple is turned into something so expensive, it makes you wonder where the world is going.
REMARK
When something so simple is turned into something so expensive, it makes you wonder where the world is going.
It’s just about the most expensive thing you can ever have in a home: a simple bathroom accessory that’s expected to sell for more than $15 million.
That’s about 16 times the average house price in Australia.
It’s a dunny, but no ordinary dunny, this one is made of solid gold and is considered the world’s most valuable crapper.
Not only that, it has quite a history and has apparently become “one of the most influential – and infamous – works of art of the century”.
It is also a “cultural phenomenon”. Cop that Tiktok!
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![Bathroom/toilet](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 768 1024"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
You call that a toilet? Photo: Sam Ruttyn
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The solid gold cistern, a sculpture by controversial Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan entitled ‘America’, is auctioned through the world’s leading high-end auction company Sotheby’s.
According to Sotheby’s, the piece is a “sharp commentary on the clash between artistic production and commodity value.”
Knowing what that means might motivate you to spend $15 million on a toilet. And guess what?
This one is functional. And what’s more, by the time the lucky new owner picks it up, it won’t even have been used.
![Art golden toilet](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1024 768"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
This is a toilet. Photo: Sotheby’s
This sounds like it could be a great buy for Dior-loving NRL star Reece Walsh, whose nosy toilet antics are well documented.
“America’s appearance at auction will confront the question that has long plagued not only Cattelan, but the art world in general, namely: how do we value art?” the auction text continues, something Walsh no doubt thinks about every hour.
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It’s hard not to get excited about this.
The ‘fully functional toilet’ is ‘made from just over 100 kilograms of solid 18-karat gold’ – eat your heart out Australian tradies.
And… “Initially at an auction, the starting bid is determined by the price of the work of art’s weight in gold – rising or falling with the gold market until the hammer falls.”
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![NRL Grand Final 2025 - Storm v Broncos](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1280 720"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Broncos head coach Michael Maguire drinks from a toy toilet as Reece Walsh of the Broncos looks on in the changing rooms after the NRL Grand Final match between the Melbourne Storm and Brisbane Broncos at Accor Stadium on October 5, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
We can barely wait 12 days until the famous gold dunny’s auction date on November 18th!
Whoever clips him in goes straight to the billiard room!
“America is Maurizio Cattelan’s tour de force. The work holds up both a proverbial and a literal mirror to the art world, confronting the most uncomfortable questions about art and the belief systems held sacred to the institutions of the market and the museum,” said David Galperin, head of the contemporary art department at Sotheby’s New York.
“In his greatest Duchampian gesture, Cattelan unravels a century of art history while imagining a new way of thinking: with his characteristic fearlessness, conceptual genius and sharp wit.”
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This requires $15 million. Image: Supplied by Sotheby’s.
And all in just one toilet.
Why not study yours today while you have a minute or two to watch a century of history unravel?
You could even see for yourself this $15 million gem that Thomas Crapper never thought possible. It will be on public display for a limited time when Sotheby’s installs it in the private bathroom of its new New York headquarters.
That will really be a – Where were you then moment – won’t it?!
WOODSTOCK, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 12: “America,” a fully functioning solid gold toilet created by artist Maurizio Cattelan, is on display at Blenheim Palace on September 12, 2019 in Woodstock, England. The Italian artist is known as the joker of the art world. His most striking piece was “America,” a serviceable toilet made of solid gold that art lovers lined up for when it was displayed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
But, but, but you can’t relieve yourself there. For ‘safety reasons’ of course.
Believe it or not, it’s actually one of many editions of ‘America’ that Cattelan made. This is the second one we know of.
Yes, this ‘America’ is number two.
He also found time to “make” a duct-taped banana to the wall, which sold for $6.2 million. That’s something you could try at home for a lot less.
America’s first edition was apparently presented to the White House during Donald Trump’s first term as US president. Photo: Donald Trump.
The first edition had an unhappy ending. It initially debuted in the bathroom of the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2016, when it attracted 100,000 visitors. Yes, 100,000 rubbernecks to the toilet room.
In many other cases you would be arrested for that.
MIAMI BEACH, FL – DECEMBER 06: People post for Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian” presented by Perrotin Gallery and featured at Art Basel Miami 2019 at the Miami Beach Convention Center on December 6, 2019 in Miami Beach, Florida. Two of the three editions of the piece, which features a banana duct-taped to the wall, reportedly sold for $120,000. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images)
It was presented to Donald Trump to use in the White House during his first term as US president. It remains the great mystery of Trump’s first visit to America’s most powerful house why he did not take up that offer.
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How good would a $15 million toilet look here?
Who knows, there could have been more ‘fake news’.
The first ‘America’ was then stolen in 2019 from Blenheim Palace, Winston’s birthplace in Oxfordshire in the south of England. Thieves, armed with sledgehammers and apparently more interested in money than ‘the clash of artistic production and commodity value’, stole it in a five-minute raid.
The perpetrators of the vile deed were convicted earlier this year, but the toilet was never recovered, believed to have been melted down for something truly valuable: the gold itself.
This looks like the kind of joint where a gold dunny would look great.
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