By Albert Tait
London: Thieves who stole a gold toilet valued at £4.8 million ($9.6 million) from Blenheim Palace completed the “audacious raid” in just five minutes, a court has heard.
Five men are accused of stealing the 18-carat gold toilet from the stately home in Oxfordshire, west of London, just days after it was installed as artwork in September 2019.
The fully functioning loo entitled America, created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, has never been recovered and is believed to have been split up and disposed of.
The fully functioning, 18-carat gold toilet, pictured here in 2016 on display at The Guggenheim Museum in New York, was created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan.Credit: AP
Oxford Crown Court was told on Monday of a “carefully planned” burglary that “would not have been possible without lots of preparation”.
Julian Christopher, KC, prosecuting, said: “The burglary was carefully planned and swiftly carried out.
“The men, five of them it appears, drove through locked wooden gates into the grounds of Blenheim Palace shortly before 5am in two stolen vehicles, an Isuzu truck and a VW Golf.
“They drove across a field, up to the front steps and smashed and broke in through a window.
“They knew precisely where to go, broke down the wooden door to the cubicle where the toilet was fully plumbed in, removed it, leaving water pouring out of the pipes, and drove away.
“All in all, they spent just five minutes in the building.”
The court heard that sledgehammers were left at the scene.
The court heard the robbery at Blenheim Palace was “carefully planned and swiftly carried out”.Credit: Alamy
Michael Jones, 39, from Oxford, pleaded not guilty in January to stealing the artwork in an overnight raid in the early hours of September 14, 2019.
Frederick Sines, 36, also known as Frederick Doe, of Winkfield, Windsor, Berkshire, and Bora Guccuk, 41, from west London, each deny one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property.
The prosecution alleged that Jones took a photograph of the artwork the day before while he was “there as part of the reconnaissance for the burglary”.
Christopher said: “Clearly such an audacious raid would not have been possible without lots of preparation.”
He added: “The work of art was never recovered. It appears to have been split up into smaller amounts of gold and never recovered.”
It is alleged that Sines and Guccuk agreed to help one of the men who carried out the burglary – a defendant named James Sheen – to sell some of the gold in the following weeks.
Jurors were told that a fourth defendant, Sheen, 40, from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, had previously pleaded guilty to burglary.
He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transfer criminal property and one count of transferring criminal property, at Oxford Crown Court in April 2024.
The Telegraph, London
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