When a solid gold toilet — made with 100 kilograms of 18-karat gold and a plumbing hookup — sold on Tuesday evening during a contemporary art auction, the auction house teased that the buyer was a “famous American brand.”
What the company did not say was that the lone bidder, who spent $12.1 million on the working sculpture, was an emporium for oddities and amusements.
A spokeswoman for Ripley’s Believe It or Not! confirmed on Wednesday that the entertainment company had purchased the gold toilet, describing it as “one of the wildest acquisitions in its history.”
“It is now the most valuable and certainly the shiniest exhibit ever to join the Ripley’s collection,” the spokeswoman, Suzanne Smagala-Potts, said in a statement. “Melt it down, and the gold alone would fetch about $10 million at today’s rate, which makes this perhaps the most tempting bathroom break in art history.”
Ripley’s has dozens of attractions worldwide, putting its own spin on aquariums, museums and mirror mazes. It has not said where the toilet will end up, though its intention is to display it. The company is even exploring, it said, “whether visitors may someday be allowed to use it.”
Sotheby’s, the auction house that ran Tuesday’s sale, had priced the artwork based on the equivalent value of gold. Ripley’s paid that, and another $2 million in premiums to Sotheby’s.
The artwork, titled “America,” was made in 2016 by the conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, who fabricated two versions of the sculpture. Thieves stole and destroyed one in 2019 when it was exhibited at Blenheim Palace in England. The version bought by Ripley’s was previously owned by Steve Cohen, a financier who owns the New York Mets.
“Finding the unbelievable is our business, but even we never imagined we would one day need a plumber on standby for an art installation,” John Corcoran, Ripley’s director of exhibits, said in a statement.
“Our No. 1 idea is to keep things free-flowing,” he added. “No. 2 is making sure nothing gets clogged up and flushes away future possibilities. We will unroll some paper and start planning.”
Zachary Small is a Times reporter writing about the art world’s relationship to money, politics and technology.
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