Public Free to Use 18K Gold Toilet at Renowned US Museum

It’s an “absurd sendup of inequality.”

“Throne” is the perfect word for a recently installed toilet at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
It’s made of 18-karat gold.

The toilet, a working replica of a Kohler model, was created by Maurizio Cattelan, an Italian artist. A Guggenheim press release says Cattelan “is often described as the art world’s resident prankster and provocateur.”

The sculpture, called “America,” is located in a “humble” restroom on the museum’s fifth-floor ramp, according to The New York Times.

The Times describes the sculpture as both “an absurd sendup of inequality (and a commentary on the runaway wealth inside the art world)” and a sort of “gift to the museumgoer, a rare chance to spend private time with something so ravishingly beautiful it’s hard to believe it’s real.”

The cost of the toilet, which is intended to stay in use indefinitely, has not been made public. It was funded by private donations.

Read more from the Guggenheim |

The New York Times

The public is free to use a recently installed 18-karat gold toilet at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.