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Hindustan Times
20-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Millionaire's son who tried to sell stolen $6.4 million gold toilet avoids jail in UK
Fred Doe, the son of a multimillionaire caravan magnate, avoided jail after he tried to sell a £4.8 million ($6.4 million) golden toilet stolen from England's Blenheim Palace. The 37-year-old was convicted of trying to sell 10 kg of the gold on behalf of a burglar who stole the toilet. Doe was given a 21-month suspended sentence after he was found guilty of conspiracy to convert or transfer criminal property in March. While sentencing Doe, the judge said that he had no personal gain or wide involvement and was only part of the sale for a short period. Doe has, however, been ordered to do 240 hours of unpaid work. The 18-carat toilet named 'America' was created by the artist Maurizio Cattelan and installed at the Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire as part of an exhibition. The unusual artwork was created in 2016 for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. It was set in one of the museum's bathrooms along with other toilets to be used by the visitors. According to the museum, over 100,000 people waited in line to use it and a security guard was posted outside the bathroom. The gold toilet weighed over 103 kilograms, which in September 2019 was valued at more than four million dollars. Five men broke into the palace in September 2019 and ripped out the toilet before fleeing in a stolen car. Doe went on trial with Michael Jones, 39, and Bora Guccuk, 41. James Sheen, 40, another burglar who had enlisted Doe's help to sell the gold, had already pleaded guilty to burglary. A few days after the burglary, Sheen contacted Doe to discuss selling the stolen gold. Using coded language, the pair exchanged messages referring to "cars" and being offered "26 and a half," which, according to the Crown Prosecution Service, was a covert reference to receiving £26,500 per kilo of gold. The judge noted that Doe had been of good character previously and accepted that the conspirators may have taken advantage of his good nature and used him for his contacts in the Hatton Garden jewellery district. "My good nature has been taken advantage of. I got caught up in something I should not have, and now I just want to go home and enjoy my family. I am a good person," he told reporters outside the court.
Toronto Sun
19-05-2025
- Toronto Sun
Man who tried to sell stolen $6.4M gold toilet is spared jail
Published May 19, 2025 • 2 minute read This Sept. 16, 2016 file image made from a video shows the 18-karat toilet, titled "America," by Maurizio Cattelan in the restroom of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Four men have been charged over the theft of an 18-carat gold toilet from Blenheim Palace, the sprawling English mansion where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born. The toilet, valued at 4.8 million pounds, or $5.95 million, was the work of Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan. (AP Photo, File) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON (AP) — A man who tried to help a burglar cash in from the theft of a golden toilet worth 4.74 million pounds ($6.4 million) was spared jail on Monday after a British judge said he had been taken advantage of by the thieves. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Frederick Doe, 37, also known as Frederick Sines, was given a suspended sentence at Oxford Crown Court for his role in helping to sell the 18-carat gold fully functioning toilet which was taken in 2019 from Blenheim Palace — the country mansion where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born. 'Those responsible for this audacious heist, five individuals could be seen on CCTV, were clearly intent on disposing of their ill-gotten gains quickly,' Judge Ian Pringle told Doe. 'You foolishly agreed to assist.' The toilet was part of a satirical art installation, titled 'America,' by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, which aimed to poke fun at excessive wealth. It weighed just over 215 pounds (98 kilograms). The value of the gold at the time was 2.8 million pounds and it was insured for nearly 5 million pounds. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The piece had previously been on display at The Guggenheim Museum, in New York,, which had offered the work to U.S. President Donald Trump during his first term in office after he had asked to borrow a Van Gogh painting. The theft of the toilet — which has never been recovered and is believed to have been cut up and sold — caused considerable damage to the 18th-century property, a UNESCO World Heritage site filled with valuable art and furniture that draws thousands of visitors each year. Of the group who smashed a window to get into the palace before dawn on Sept. 14, 2019, only two have been charged and convicted. James Sheen, 40, previously pleaded guilty to burglary, conspiracy and transferring criminal property. Michael Jones, 39, was convicted of burglary at the trial where Doe was convicted. Sheen and Jones will be sentenced June 13. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Doe punched his fist in the air as he emerged from court, saying he was a good person who 'got caught up in something I should not have.' The judge said Sheen approached Doe because he had contacts in London's jewelry district. In a WhatsApp message, Doe told Sheen he could 'sell the gold in a second.' Doe said he had no idea the gold was looted and wouldn't have sold stolen gold 'in a million years.' Doe, who was convicted of conspiracy to transfer criminal property, was given a two-year suspended term and ordered to perform 240 hours of unpaid work. 'You agreed to assist Mr. Sheen without any hope or expectation of a reward for yourself,' the judge said. 'You no doubt, for the last five-and-a-half years, regret doing (that) for James Sheen every day since your arrest.'
Khaleej Times
13-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
For actor Pierce Brosnan, the world is just enough
On the last day of March, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, fans approached actor Pierce Brosnan every few minutes. Some addressed him as Mr. Brosnan, some as Mr. Bond, a reference to the four James Bond movies he made in the 1990s and early 2000s. (Brosnan has a face that demands honourifics.) Dressed in chic monochrome — navy trench, navy pants, a navy ascot at the neck of a navy shirt — he was gracious with them all, if lightly evasive. (And yes, he is the rare man who looks plausible in an ascot.) At 71, he doesn't often show the whole of himself. People see what they want. Mostly they see Bond. 'They miss a lot,' he said. 'But it's not up to me to show a lot. It's not up to me to do anything but be pleasant.' There has always been more to Brosnan than meets the eye, although what meets the eye is obviously very nice. 'He is very fortunate in the genes department,' said Tom Hardy, his co-star on the new Paramount+ gangster series MobLand. Brosnan refers to it all as 'the Celtic alchemy.' A longtime painter and art enthusiast, Brosnan counts The Thomas Crown Affair, a 1999 art heist caper, as the favourite of his movies, mostly because he got to keep the paintings. So when promotional duties brought him to New York — he splits his time between Malibu and Hawaii — he squeezed in a museum visit. On arrival, he found the Guggenheim spiral closed for installation. ('That's boring,' he said mildly at the ticket counter.) He contented himself with the works on display. 'I love colour,' Brosnan said, admiring some canvases by Brazilian painter Beatriz Milhazes. 'Exhilarating. Captivating.' His speech has a casual lyricism — he'll rarely use a single adjective when two or three will do — but he seemed to mean it. In his acting career, Brosnan's palette has been fairly particular. 'It's been part of my story as an actor,' he said. 'Playing the hero, playing the mysterious man, playing the man that you trust.' But his recent roles (and some that he has taken before: The Matador, The Tailor of Panama) complicate that persona. Conrad, the criminal boss he plays in MobLand, harbours brutality underneath his gentlemanly wardrobe. Arthur, the British spy chief he animates in Steven Soderbergh's sleek espionage thriller Black Bag, now in theaters, has his complications, too. And yet, Brosnan is still and always Bond. Walking out, Brosnan admired a Pierre Bonnard, a Paul Cézanne, several Picassos. He clocked a Wassily Kandinsky from all the way across the room. 'Just makes you want to paint,' he said. He has fantasies of moving to Paris and apprenticing with some artist in an atelier. But he isn't ready to give up acting. 'It's a drug now,' he said. 'I need it.' Though Brosnan is often very funny ('He's got a wicked sense of humour,' Hardy said), it wasn't clear that he was joking. Certainly he hasn't quit yet. He shot his role in Black Bag on a quick break from another film, Giant. He began work on MobLand, in which he stars opposite Helen Mirren, just after wrapping the movie The Thursday Murder Club, also opposite Mirren. Black Bag returns him to the secret service. His character is a spymaster of oblique motivation. The movie pays homage to classic espionage films, which made Brosnan an attractive choice for the role. 'There's a knowingness that is shared with the audience that's very pleasurable, a shared secret,' Soderbergh said. Brosnan knows this, too. 'I was trusted to bring them in, to engage with the audience and then to dismantle that persona,' he said. (A further bit of dismantling: He asked Soderbergh for a mild prosthetic for his nose, which sharpens his face.) He plays a similar game in MobLand, created by Ronan Bennett (Top Boy) and directed partly by Guy Ritchie. Conrad seems the consummate gentleman, but he's not above kicking a man when he's down — and wounded and bleeding from the mouth. As his wife, Maeve (Mirren) says, he is, beneath his dapper tweeds and Barbour, 'a stone-cold Paddy killer.' Brosnan's portrayal makes that brutality engrossing. 'He has what they call 'spell,'' Hardy said. 'He casts a spell on the room.' This is true of Brosnan off-screen as well. His gallantry is profligate, effortless. In our time together, he held doors; he helped me with my coat; he called me darling. I knew I was being charmed. I was helpless to it. To spend these hours with him was to feel rammed by a tractor-trailer of sheer charisma. This version of Brosnan — the curated wardrobe, the way he politely asked to have his lunchtime Chablis cooled ('Give it some good ice, please,' he said) — seemed authentic to him. 'I love clothes; I love style,' he said. 'I love the beauty of life, of men, of women. The art of life, it feeds me.' But it is also a pose he has perfected over the years, one rooted at least in part in a childhood in Ireland that included abandonment by his father and a long separation from his mother. 'I wanted to be an artist; I wanted to be a painter,' he said. 'I had no qualifications. I was really behind the eight ball — without a mother, without a father.' But that freedom allowed him to create, he said, 'this persona for myself called Pierce' that has become only more refined with wealth, fame and the realisation of his artistic aspirations. Pierce is arguably his greatest role, and he has little ambivalence toward it or the celebrity it has afforded him. 'I wished it; I wanted it,' he said. 'So I get on with it.' Still, he admitted, he was looking forward to the week's end, when he could be himself, not show himself. But what he shows, in person and on screen, it's enough. For him, and maybe for the rest of us. 'I'll keep playing it as long as it goes,' he said. 'It got me this far. I'll keep marching on.'
New York Times
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
For Pierce Brosnan, the World Is Just Enough
On the last day of March, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, fans approached the actor Pierce Brosnan every few minutes. Some addressed him as Mr. Brosnan, some as Mr. Bond, a reference to the four James Bond movies he made in the 1990s and early 2000s. (Brosnan has a face that demands honorifics.) Dressed in chic monochrome — navy trench, navy pants, a navy ascot at the neck of a navy shirt — he was gracious with them all, if lightly evasive. (And yes, he is the rare man who looks plausible in an ascot.) At 71, he doesn't often show the whole of himself. People see what they want. Mostly they see Bond. 'They miss a lot,' he said. 'But it's not up to me to show a lot. It's not up to me to do anything but be pleasant.' There has always been more to Brosnan than meets the eye, although what meets the eye is obviously very nice. 'He is very fortunate in the genes department,' said Tom Hardy, his co-star on the new Paramount+ gangster series 'MobLand' said. Brosnan refers to it all as 'the Celtic alchemy.' Image Pierce Brosnan, center, with Helen Mirren and Anson Boon, plays a dapper killer in the new crime drama 'MobLand.' Credit... Luke Varley/Paramount+, via Associated Press A longtime painter and art enthusiast, Brosnan counts 'The Thomas Crown Affair,' a 1999 art heist caper, as the favorite of his movies, mostly because he got to keep the paintings. So when promotional duties brought him to New York — he splits his time between Malibu and Hawaii — he squeezed in a museum visit. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Russia Today
20-03-2025
- Russia Today
Gang convicted of stealing solid gold toilet named ‘America' (PHOTO)
Three men have been convicted of stealing a $6.4 million solid gold toilet, named 'America', from an English museum. On Tuesday, the jury at Oxford Crown Court found James Sheen, Michael Jones, and Frederick Doe guilty of committing burglary at Blenheim Palace in 2019. The fully functional 18-carat toilet created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan 'offers a wink to the excesses of the art market but also evokes the American dream of opportunity for all,' according to the description from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. More than 100,000 people queued to use the toilet after it was first installed in the Guggenheim in 2016, according to the museum. The artwork left the New York art scene a year later for Blenheim Palace in the UK. Prosecutor Shan Saunders claimed that a gang of five broke into the palace in an early morning raid and disconnected the toilet from the mains, before absconding. The artwork was quickly 'broken up or melted down and sold,' he added, claiming that the gold has never been recovered. 'This was an audacious raid which had been carefully planned and executed – but those responsible were not careful enough, leaving a trail of evidence in the form of forensics, CCTV footage and phone data,' Saunders told the court.
