‘Searing humour’: $15m toilet joke is on all of us

When something this simple is turned into something this expensive you gotta wonder where the hell the world is heading.

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When something this simple is turned into something this expensive you gotta wonder where the hell the world is heading.

It’s just about the most expensive thing to be in a home ever – a simple bathroom accessory that’s set to sell for more than $15m.

That’s about 16 times the average home price in Australia.

It’s a dunny, but no ordinary dunny, this one is made of solid gold and is considered the world’s most valuable crapper.

Not only that, it has quite the history and apparently “has become one of the century’s most influential – and infamous – artworks”.

It’s also a “cultural phenomenon” too. Cop that Tiktok!

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You call that a toilet? Picture: Sam Ruttyn

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The solid gold cistern, a sculpture by controversial Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan titled ‘America’, is up for auction via the world’s most notable high end auction company Sotheby’s.

According to Sotheby’s the piece is an “incisive commentary on the collision of artistic production and commodity value”.

If you know what that means, perhaps it might motivate you to spend $15m on a toilet. And guess what?

This one is functional. And, what’s more by the time the lucky new owner picks it up, it won’t even have been used.

This is a toilet. Picture: Sotheby’s

This sounds like it could be a great buy for Dior loving NRL star Reece Walsh, whose curious toilet antics have been well documented.

“The appearance of America at auction will confront the question that has long preoccupied not only Cattelan but also the art world at large, namely: how do we value art?” the auction blurb continues, something no doubt Walsh ponders himself on an hourly basis.

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It’s hard not to get excited about this.

Or this.

The “fully functional toilet” has been “fashioned from just over 100 kilograms of solid 18-karat gold” – eat your heart out Aussie tradies.

And … “In an auction first, the starting bid will be determined by the price of the artwork’s weight in gold – rising or falling with the gold market until the hammer falls.”

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Michael Maguire head coach of the Broncos drinks from a toy toilet as Reece Walsh of the Broncos looks on in the change rooms following the NRL Grand Final match between the Melbourne Storm at Brisbane Broncos at Accor Stadium on October 05, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

We can barely wait the 12 days until the famous golden dunny’s November 18 auction date!

Surely whoever snaps it up – it’s straight to the pool room!

“America is Maurizio Cattelan’s tour de force. Holding both a proverbial and literal mirror to the art world, the work confronts the most uncomfortable questions about art, and the belief systems held sacred to the institutions of the market and the museum,” David Galperin, Head of Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s New York said.

“In his grandest Duchampian gesture, Cattelan unravels a century of art history while imagining a new way of thinking: with his characteristic fearlessness, conceptual genius, and searing humour.”

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$15m for this. Picture: Supplied by Sotheby’s.

All that in just one toilet.

Why not study yours today while you have a minute or two and watch a century of history unravel?

You could even check out this $15m gem, Thomas Crapper could never have imagined possible, for yourself. It will be on public view for a limited time when Sotheby’s installs it in its own bathroom of its new New York HQ.

That will truly be a – Where were you when moment – won’t it?!

Blenheim Palace Hosts Artist Maurizio Cattelan's First Solo UK Exhibition

WOODSTOCK, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 12: “America”, a fully-working solid gold toilet, created by artist Maurizio Cattelan, is seen at Blenheim Palace on September 12, 2019 in Woodstock, England. The Italian artist is known as the prankster of the art world. His most notable piece being “America” a solid gold usable toilet which had art lovers queuing to use when it was shown at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

But, but, but you won’t be able to relieve yourself there. For ‘security reasons’ of course.

Believe it or not, it’s actually one of several editions of ‘America’ that Cattelan made. This is the second one we know of.

Yup, this ‘America’ is a Number Two.

He’s also found time to ‘make’ a banana duct-taped to a wall, that sold for $US6.2m. That’s something you could actually try at home for much less.

Supplied Donald Trump has shared before and after images of the White House
Lincoln Bathroom that has gone from pale and elegant art deco to marble and
gold glitz. Picture: Donald Trump.

The first edition of America was apparently offered to the White House during Donald Trump’s first term as US President. Picture: Donald Trump.

The first edition met an unfortunate end. Initially it debuted in the bathroom of New York’s Guggenheim Museum in 2016, when it drew 100,000. Yup, 100,000 rubbernecks to the rest room.

In a lot of other instances you would get arrested for that.

MIAMI BEACH, FL – DECEMBER 06: People post in front of Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian” presented by Perrotin Gallery and on view at Art Basel Miami 2019 at Miami Beach Convention Center on December 6, 2019 in Miami Beach, Florida. Two of the three editions of the piece, which feature a banana duct-taped to a wall, have reportedly sold for $120,000. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images)

It was offered to Donald Trump to use in the White House during his first term as US President. It remains the great mystery of Trump’s first time in American’s most powerful house as to why he didn’t take that offer up.

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How good would a $15m toilet look here?

Could have been more ‘fake news’ who knows.

The first ‘America’ was then stolen in 2019 from Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston in Oxfordshire in the south of England. Thieves armed with sledgehammers and with apparently more interest in money than “the collision of artistic production and commodity value” stole it in a five-minute raid.

The perpetrators of the foul deed were convicted earlier this year but the toilet was never recovered, presumably melted down for something actually valuable – that is the gold itself.