Stole gold toilet worth 5.5 million euros from the house where Winston Churchill was born

A man has pleaded guilty to stealing a toilet made entirely of 18-carat gold and valued at more than 5.5 million euros from the English stately home where former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was born.

James Sheen, 39, pleaded guilty to theft, conversion or transfer of criminal property and conspiracy to do the same at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday, British news agency PA Media reported, citing the UK Prosecution Service. Crown.

The fully functioning toilet was installed at Blenheim Palace in 2019, as part of an exhibition by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan entitled “Victory is not an option”.

The unusual work of art, titled “America”, was stolen in September 2019 of that year, just days after the exhibition opened. The work had been connected to the building’s plumbing, so the theft also caused significant damage and flooding, police said at the time.

Sheen appeared in court via video link from Five Wells prison, where he is serving a 17-year sentence for several robberies. Among others, she is serving a sentence for stealing valuable tractors and trophies from the National Horse Racing Museum in Newmarket, worth a total of £400,000, around €466,000.

“America” ​​was exhibited for the first time at the Guggenheim, in New York, in 2016. It was in the news again in 2017, after President Donald Trump’s White House sent an email to the Guggenheim asking to borrow the painting “Landscape with snow”, by Vincent Van Gogh, from 1888; instead, the institution’s curator offered the golden toilet.

At Blenheim Palace, the toilet was installed in a room next to the one in which Churchill was born. According to a statement announcing the exhibition, the work can be understood as a commentary on social, political and economic disparities in the United States.

Commenting on the work, Cattelan previously told the New Yorker: “Whatever you eat, a two-hundred-dollar lunch or a two-dollar hot dog, the results are the same, in terms of ‘toilet.'” He also described the work. as “1% art for the 99%”.

Three other men were charged in connection with the toilet theft in November, but have pleaded not guilty.

Michael Jones, 38, of Oxford, is charged with robbery.

Frederick Sines, also known as Frederick Doe, from Ascot, Berkshire, and Bora Gucuck, 40, from west London, are both charged with conspiracy to transfer criminal property.

The men are due to be tried in February next year.