Overview
- The 100–101 kg, 18‑carat gold work titled America sold in New York on Nov. 18 for $12.1 million after bidding opened around its melt value of roughly $10 million and closed with a single winning bid including fees.
- Ripley’s Believe It or Not! confirmed it purchased the piece and says it will put the sculpture on display, with a decision pending on whether visitors might be allowed to use the functioning toilet.
- The edition sold had been owned by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen and was shown at Sotheby’s new Breuer galleries, which the auction house said drew more than 25,000 visitors.
- Created by Maurizio Cattelan in 2016, the functional toilet was conceived as a sharp commentary on wealth and the collision of artistic production with commodity value.
- Only two editions exist; the other was stolen from Blenheim Palace in 2019 and has not been recovered, with investigators suspecting it may have been dismantled and melted.