Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's controversial 18-karat gold toilet sculpture titled "America" (2016) is set to headline Sotheby's "The Now and Contemporary" evening sale on November 18, with starting bids expected around $10.2 million. The functional artwork, weighing just over 223 pounds (101.2 kg), marks the artist's return to the auction spotlight exactly one year after his banana duct-taped to a wall piece "Comedian" (2019) sold for $6.2 million to Chinese crypto billionaire Justin Sun.
Sotheby's will debut the pre-auction display of "America" in one of the restrooms at its new Manhattan headquarters in the Breuer Building starting November 8. While the toilet remains fully operational, visitors can only view it during one-on-one sessions through November 17, and no one is permitted to actually use the golden commode for its intended purpose this time around.
The original installation of "America" took place in a restroom at the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, where museum visitors would wait up to several hours to use the artwork as they would any regular toilet, albeit with certain security and maintenance restrictions. During the early days of Donald Trump's first presidency and inauguration, Cattelan's multi-million dollar topical sculpture drew widespread criticism and creative protests, including yarn-bombing incidents at the Guggenheim.
The piece gained additional notoriety when Nancy Spector, the museum's then-Chief Curator, offered to loan "America" to the Trump administration for display in the White House after they had initially requested to borrow a Vincent van Gogh painting. This satirical counter-offer highlighted the artwork's pointed commentary on American excess and political climate.
In 2019, "America" made international headlines when it was stolen from Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England, where it was on loan for a solo exhibition of Cattelan's works at Winston Churchill's birthplace. The original toilet was never recovered despite extensive investigations, though two men were sentenced this year for their involvement in the high-profile art heist.
The upcoming auction features the second edition of "America," coinciding with Trump's second presidential term. The timing appears deliberate as Cattelan continues his mission to provoke public discourse while questioning how society assigns value to objects and ideas, particularly critiquing the art market's priorities during times of economic hardship when approximately 40 million vulnerable Americans face food insecurity.
Art critics and observers note that Spector's original suggestion to offer the golden toilet to Donald and Melania Trump instead of the requested van Gogh painting seems increasingly prescient, with some suggesting there couldn't be a more fitting home for the provocative artwork than the White House's East Wing. The piece continues to serve as both a functional sculpture and a biting commentary on wealth disparity, political excess, and the often absurd nature of contemporary art valuation.
