UK jails men who stole US$6 million golden toilet from mansion
Two men who stole a US$6.4 million golden toilet from an English mansion were sentenced on Friday to more than two years in prison.
The 18-carat fully functioning toilet was on display as a piece of contemporary art at Blenheim Palace – the country mansion where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born – when five burglars smashed a window and yanked it from its plumbing in a brazen early morning raid in September 2019. It was never recovered and was believed to have been chopped up and sold.
James Sheen, 40, a roofer who pleaded guilty to burglary, conspiracy and transferring criminal property was sentenced in Oxford Crown Court to four years in prison.
Michael Jones, 39, who worked for Sheen and was convicted of burglary at trial, was sentenced to two years and three months.
The toilet weighed just over 215 pounds (98kg) and was worth more than its weight in gold. The value of the gold at the time was £2.8 million (US$3.5 million), but it was insured for £4.7 million.
Guests wait for access to the exhibit of Maurizio Cattelan's 'America' a fully functional solid gold toilet, at The Guggenheim Museum in New York City in 2017. Photo: Reuters
The toilet was part of a satirical commentary on consumer culture, titled 'America' by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, whose work of a banana duct-taped to a wall was sold in 2024 for US$6.2 million at auction in New York.
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Two men who stole a US$6.4 million golden toilet from an English mansion were sentenced on Friday to more than two years in prison. The 18-carat fully functioning toilet was on display as a piece of contemporary art at Blenheim Palace – the country mansion where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born – when five burglars smashed a window and yanked it from its plumbing in a brazen early morning raid in September 2019. It was never recovered and was believed to have been chopped up and sold. James Sheen, 40, a roofer who pleaded guilty to burglary, conspiracy and transferring criminal property was sentenced in Oxford Crown Court to four years in prison. Michael Jones, 39, who worked for Sheen and was convicted of burglary at trial, was sentenced to two years and three months. The toilet weighed just over 215 pounds (98kg) and was worth more than its weight in gold. The value of the gold at the time was £2.8 million (US$3.5 million), but it was insured for £4.7 million. Guests wait for access to the exhibit of Maurizio Cattelan's 'America' a fully functional solid gold toilet, at The Guggenheim Museum in New York City in 2017. Photo: Reuters The toilet was part of a satirical commentary on consumer culture, titled 'America' by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, whose work of a banana duct-taped to a wall was sold in 2024 for US$6.2 million at auction in New York.
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