The art world's shiniest mystery has finally been flushed out: An infamous $10 million gold toilet is hitting the auction block, and the owner is none other than Mets boss and billionaire Steven Cohen, sources tell the New York Times. The 18-karat throne, crafted by conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan and dubbed "America," has apparently lived quietly in Cohen's collection since 2017. Five insiders confirm Cohen is the secret seller, though Sotheby's, which will handle the sale, is keeping mum.
Artnet notes that whether the seller is Cohen or someone else, that person is "about to make a killing," as the price of gold in 2017 was less than a third of what it is now. The golden commode, weighing in at about 220 pounds, is also fully functional, if you feel like calling a plumber to install it, per the Times.
Cattelan made two versions of the piece: one that ended up at the Guggenheim in New York, and another that the seller thought to be Cohen bought from the Marian Goodman Gallery. The Guggenheim's toilet made headlines when the museum offered it to the Trump White House instead of a requested Van Gogh painting.
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That version was later stolen from England's Blenheim Palace in 2019 and remains missing, making the Sotheby's offering the last of its kind. The auction house hopes for banana-level buzz like it enjoyed last year, when Cattelan's duct-taped banana sculpture drew a bidding frenzy and sold for $6.2 million. No word from Cohen on why he seems to be parting with his potty, which Sotheby's calls a "tour de force."
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