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Italian artist’s €5 million gold toilet stolen in England

A gang of thieves on Saturday stole an 18-carat gold toilet by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan from an art exhibition at Britain's Blenheim Palace.

Published: 14 September 2019 17:39 CEST
Italian artist's €5 million gold toilet stolen in England
The work, dubbed 'America' has been offered on loan to US President Donald Trump. Photo: William Edwards/AFP
The fully-functioning piece by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, dubbed “America”, was once displayed at New York's Guggenheim museum and offered on loan to US President Donald Trump.
   
A 66-year-old man has been arrested over the theft at the 18th-century stately home in Oxfordshire, which caused flooding at the World Heritage Site.
 
 
“The offenders broke into the palace overnight and left the scene at about 4.50 am. No-one was injured during the burglary,” local police said.
   
Detective Inspector Jess Milne said: “The piece of art that has been stolen is a high-value toilet made out of gold that was on display at the palace. Due to the toilet being plumbed into the building, this has caused significant damage and flooding. We believe a group of offenders used at least two vehicles during the offence.
   
“The artwork has not been recovered at this time but we are conducting a thorough investigation to find it and bring those responsible to justice.”
 
Cattelan told the New York Times that when he first heard news of the theft, he hoped it was a prank.
 
“Who's so stupid to steal a toilet? I had forgotten for a second that it was made out of gold,” he said, adding: “I wish it was a prank.”
 

Maurizio Cattelan's gold toilet, 'America'. Photo: William Edwards/AFP
 
Cattelan has described the 18-carat gold work as “one-percent art for the 99 percent”.
 
“I hope it still is. I want to be positive and think the robbery is a kind of Robin Hood-inspired action,” he said, referring to the character of English folklore who stole from the rich to give to the poor.
 
Blenheim Palace chief executive Dominic Hare meanwhile revealed that the toilet, which was only put on display at the English stately home on Thursday, had been valued at around $5 to $6 million.
 
He told the BBC that the palace, the birthplace of wartime leader Winston Churchill and a UNESCO World Heritage site, had a sophisticated security system. But he added: “Clearly we need to challenge ourselves on that.”
 
He also said it was “not out of the question [that it] would be melted down” by the thieves.
 

Maurizio Cattelan. Photo: Alain Jocard/AFP

The toilet was one of the star attractions in an exhibition of Cattelan's works, with visitors able to book three-minute time slots to use it.
 
When the work was on display at New York's Guggenheim museum, more than 100,000 people lined up to use the loo during the course of a year.

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ART

African-born director’s new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

One of the rare African-born figures to head a German cultural institution, Bonaventure Ndikung is aiming to highlight post-colonial multiculturalism at a Berlin arts centre with its roots in Western hegemony.

Published: 8 July 2023 10:13 CEST
African-born director's new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

The “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” (House of World Cultures), or HKW, was built by the Americans in 1956 during the Cold War for propaganda purposes, at a time when Germany was still divided.

New director Ndikung said it had been located “strategically” so that people on the other side of the Berlin Wall, in the then-communist East, could see it.

This was “representing freedom” but “from the Western perspective”, the 46-year-old told AFP.

Now Ndikung, born in Cameroon before coming to study in Germany 26 years ago, wants to transform it into a place filled with “different cultures of the world”.

The centre, by the river Spree, is known locally as the “pregnant oyster” due to its sweeping, curved roof. It does not have its own collections but is home to exhibition rooms and a 1,000-seat auditorium.

It reopened in June after renovations, and Ndikung’s first project “Quilombismo” fits in with his aims of expanding the centre’s offerings.

The exhibition takes its name from the Brazilian term “Quilombo”, referring to the communities formed in the 17th century by African slaves, who fled to remote parts of the South American country.

Throughout the summer, there will also be performances, concerts, films, discussions and an exhibition of contemporary art from post-colonial societies across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

‘Rethink the space’

“We have been trying to… rethink the space. We invited artists to paint walls… even the floor,” Ndikung said.

And part of the “Quilombismo” exhibition can be found glued to the floor -African braids laced together, a symbol of liberation for black people, which was created by Zimbabwean artist Nontsikelelo Mutiti.

According to Ndikung, African slaves on plantations sometimes plaited their hair in certain ways as a kind of coded message to those seeking to escape, showing them which direction to head.

READ ALSO: Germany hands back looted artefacts to Nigeria

His quest for aestheticism is reflected in his appearance: with a colourful suit and headgear, as well as huge rings on his fingers, he rarely goes unnoticed.

During his interview with AFP, Ndikung was wearing a green scarf and cap, a blue-ish jacket and big, sky-blue shoes.

With a doctorate in medical biology, he used to work as an engineer before devoting himself to art.

In 2010, he founded the Savvy Gallery in Berlin, bringing together art from the West and elsewhere, and in 2017 was one of the curators of Documenta, a prestigious contemporary art event in the German city of Kassel.

Convinced of the belief that history “has been written by a particular type of people, mostly white and men,” Ndikung has had all the rooms in the HKW renamed after women.

These are figures who have “done something important in the advancement of the world” but were “erased” from history, he added. Among them is Frenchwoman Paulette Nardal, born in Martinique in 1896.

She helped inspire the creation of the “negritude” movement, which aimed to develop black literary consciousness, and was the first black woman to study at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Reassessing history

Ndikung’s appointment at the HKW comes as awareness grows in Germany about its colonial past, which has long been overshadowed by the atrocities committed during the era of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

Berlin has in recent years started returning looted objects to African countries which it occupied in the early 20th century — Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia and Cameroon.

“It’s long overdue,” said Ndikung.

He was born in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, into an anglophone family.

The country is majority francophone but also home to an anglophone minority and has faced deadly unrest in English-speaking areas, where armed insurgents are fighting to establish an independent homeland.

One of his dreams is to open a museum in Cameroon “bringing together historical and contemporary objects” from different countries, he said.

He would love to locate it in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s restive Northwest region.

“But there is a war in Bamenda, so I can’t,” he says.

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