On Nov. 18, it will be coming to auction, with bidding to start at about $10 million.
Written by Julia Halperin and Zachary Small
The mystery has swirled through the art world for nearly a decade: Who bought that weird toilet designed by an artist?
And not just any toilet — one made from 100 kilograms of solid gold, 18-karat. It even works, if you call a plumber for the hookup.
It turns out that one of the wealthiest men in America has owned it the whole time: Steven Cohen, the billionaire financier who also owns the New York Mets. Cohen is reported to have bought the gold toilet, created as a sculpture by conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, from an art gallery in 2017. On Nov. 18, it will be coming to auction, with bidding to start at about $10 million. Five experts with knowledge of the deal, who requested anonymity to discuss a private business matter, said Cohen was the consignor.
The gold toilet reemerged last week at the Sotheby’s auction house with a glowing news release about how Cattelan had made the golden loo as a sculpture in 2016 and called it “America.” Sotheby’s will sell Cohen’s artwork during its fall contemporary art evening sale, hoping to generate a level of buzz similar to the one Cattelan attracted last year at Sotheby’s — when his duct-taped banana, titled “Comedian,” became a $6.2 million sensation, drawing seven bidders. This year’s marquee sale is at the company’s new Manhattan headquarters, in the Breuer building on Madison Avenue.
Cohen is said to have purchased the gold toilet by Cattelan from Marian Goodman Gallery. Sotheby’s declined to comment about the identity of the seller, and a spokesperson for Marian Goodman Gallery would not discuss a private transaction. A representative for Cohen did not respond to questions.
For the cost of the Cattelan sculpture, you could buy 100,000 single-flush toilets at Home Depot, where one made of durable china currently sells for about $100.
Cohen serves as chair and CEO of Point72, an asset management firm that he founded. The firm has grown in recent years, having made investments in entertainment, military technology and pharmaceuticals.
He has a sizable art collection and has been known to purchase other works of postwar art that combine dark humor and political commentary, such as a seminal “Flag” painting made by Jasper Johns in 1958, based on the U.S. flag, said to have occurred in a private sale in 2010. He is also the reported owner of a sculpture featuring a shark suspended in formaldehyde that Damien Hirst made in 1991.
While Sotheby’s has underplayed the toilet owner’s identity, the company has leaned heavily on the scandalous history behind the commode.
Cattelan originally produced two editions of the 18-karat gold toilet. Cohen had one; the other went on view in 2016 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. In a slight to the Trump administration, when White House officials requested the loan of one of the institution’s paintings by Vincent van Gogh to decorate the president’s private living quarters, the museum offered its version of Cattelan’s loo instead.
In 2019, while that toilet was on loan to Blenheim Palace in England, it disappeared. Thieves had taken it, leaving behind a minor flood. The sculpture was never recovered, although the thieves were prosecuted. Two men were found guilty by a jury this year; another person was acquitted of the crime.
So Cohen’s version of the golden toilet is the last surviving example.
The gold toilet will be riding on the popularity of the last Cattelan sculpture to come to auction. His duct-taped banana smashed expectations when it sold for $6.2 million last year at Sotheby’s, to crypto billionaire Justin Sun. Auction experts believe the banana’s reputation will attract more cryptocurrency elites to the gold toilet.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
