The most famous toilet in contemporary art has changed owner. “America” - an 18-karat gold toilet weighing over 100 kilos created by Maurizio Cattelan in 2016 – was sold by Sotheby’s in New York for 12.1 million dollars, after a single bid, sparking the enthusiasm – and perplexity – of the public present at “The Now & Contemporary Evening Auction”. A result that reaffirms, once again, the Paduan artist’s ability to set the international market on fire with works that challenge the very concept of value.
The buyer was a “famous American brand”, as announced by Cassandra Hatton, vice president of science and natural history at Sotheby’s, usually more accustomed to dealing with dinosaur skeletons than conceptual sculptures. In the days preceding the sale, the auction house had also confirmed that it would be possible to pay in cryptocurrency, adding further spice to the debate on the relationship between material value and symbolic value of contemporary works of art.
The lot was presented with an initial bid of 10 million dollars, a figure calculated based solely on the value of the gold contained in the work, approximately 2,440 ounces, for a value of 9.9 million dollars. The toilet reached the final price of 12.1 million exclusively thanks to auction rights, stopping just above its market value as a precious metal. A conceptual gesture perfectly consistent with Cattelan’s language: the artist’s most ironic and physical work sold at the price of gold, not a dollar more nor one less.
The seller was identified as Steve Cohen, billionaire and owner of the New York Mets, who had purchased “America” from the Marian Goodman Gallery in 2017. Unlike many works of this caliber, the lot had neither a guarantee nor an irrevocable offer, making the result even more interesting on a speculative level.
The toilet auctioned represents the only surviving example of the edition. The other complete version was in fact installed in 2019 at Blenheim Palace, England, where it was stolen in a spectacular night raid and has never been found. The work offered for sale by Cohen, therefore, takes on an even more significant value as the only physical evidence of the project.
Before the sale, “America” was relocated – with great conceptual coherence – inside a bathroom of the new Breuer Building, the New York headquarters of Sotheby’s. An echo of the 2016 debut at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, when over 100,000 visitors had the chance to use it as a fully functional toilet. This time, however, access was only visual: no immersive experiences.
David Galperin, head of contemporary art at Sotheby’s, defined the sculpture as “one of Cattelan’s most iconic and influential works”, capable of embodying the key themes of his poetics: value, absurdity, criticism of institutions. And in fact the sale of “America” re-proposes the fundamental questions that run through the artist’s work: how much is a work of art really worth when its material speaks as much – or more – than its idea? What happens when conceptual and commercial value dramatically collide?
If in 2024 the famous banana stuck to the wall, “The Comedian”, had reached 6.2 million dollars, “America” does not touch Cattelan’s absolute record at auction: the 17.2 million reached in 2016 by “Him”, the sculpture depicting a kneeling Adolf Hitler.
With this new award, Maurizio Cattelan consolidates his figure as an intellectual provocateur capable of short-circuiting irony, social criticism and the art market. “America” remains, today more than ever, a perfect symbol of our time: an everyday object transformed into a pop icon, a precious refuge and at the same time a merciless satire on consumerism and the hierarchies of economic power. (by Paolo Martini)