Maurizio Cattelan’s Golden Toilet Fails to Make a Splash

2 hours ago7 min read

The gilded absurdity of Maurizio Cattelan’s ‘America,’ a fully functional 18-karat gold toilet, was supposed to be the star lot, a piece of provocative theatre destined to command the auction room. Instead, its sale at Sotheby’s for $12.1 million felt less like a triumphant curtain call and more like a dress rehearsal that never quite found its rhythm. The work, which famously was installed in a restroom at the Guggenheim Museum where visitors could actually use it, represents the pinnacle of Cattelan’s career-long flirtation with satire, value, and the sheer ridiculousness of the art market.Yet, as the auctioneer’s gavel hovered, there was an unmistakable, almost painful silence—a full, awkward minute where the anticipated bidding war failed to materialize, leaving the auctioneer to desperately coax bids from a room gone quiet. This wasn't the explosive commentary on wealth and accessibility the artist intended; it was a fizzle, a piece of conceptual art that ultimately commented on its own market limitations.The final price, while a sum that could fund a small museum’s annual program, fell conspicuously short of the $15 to $20 million some insiders had whispered about, a clear signal that even the most brazen art world stunts have their ceiling. One can’t help but draw parallels to the infamous sale of Banksy’s ‘Girl with a Balloon,’ which partially shredded itself immediately after being sold, creating a new, more valuable piece of performance art in the process.Cattelan’s toilet, by contrast, simply… sold. It was a transactional whimper, not a cultural bang.The piece, created in 2016, has always been a paradox—a symbol of ultimate luxury crafted for the most base human function, a democratic artwork in a world of extreme inequality. Its failure to ‘make a splash’ in the auction house, therefore, is perhaps its most fitting, if unintended, critique.The market, it seems, can commodify rebellion, but it cannot always guarantee a spectacle. In the end, the golden toilet’s quiet sale speaks volumes about a moment when the art world’s appetite for shock may be waning, or worse, becoming just another predictable line item on a collector’s invoice.

#Maurizio Cattelan

#America

#golden toilet

#art auction

#Sotheby's

#contemporary art

#featured

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