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Two men jailed for their roles in theft of £4.75m gold toilet from Blenheim Palace

  • James Sheen and Michael Jones received prison sentences for their involvement in the 2019 theft of an 18-carat golden toilet from the stately home Blenheim Palace.
  • The theft occurred hours after a launch party and involved smashing in and ripping out the fully functioning artwork titled 'America' by Maurizio Cattelan.
  • The toilet weighed about 98kg, was insured for $6.4 million, served as a star exhibition piece, and has never been recovered after likely being melted down and sold.
  • Judge Ian Pringle described the heist as "bold and brazen," lasting only five-and-a-half minutes, and sentenced Sheen to four years and Jones to 27 months in prison.
  • The sentencing adds to Sheen’s ongoing jail time, and the case reflects an audacious art theft affecting a historic site and the art world’s anticipation of recovery.
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Lean Right

Two men are convicted of stealing a gold toilet worth 4.75 million pounds – equivalent to 48 million kronor.

·Stockholm, Sweden
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Right

Two Brits took a spectacular action to steal an artful 18-carat gold toilet. They now have to go to prison. What happened exactly with the famous toilet called "America" from Winston Churchill's birthplace is not completely clarified. "America was never seen again," said the judge at any rate when the sentence was announced. The 40-year-old was quite certain to be the one who led the proposed hammer in September 2019, with which the toilet had b…

·Vienna, Austria
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Lean Right

The 98-kilo solid gold toilet bowl, a work of art by Maurizio Cattelan, was taken from a museum in five minutes.

·Netherlands
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Kent Online broke the news in Kent, United Kingdom on Friday, June 13, 2025.
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