2025-11-20
To the surprise of the media, the sale of Maurizio Cattelan's golden toilet – which we wrote about when it was announced that it would be put up for auction – did not cause much of a stir on the art market.
The final price turned out to be slightly higher than the value of the gold itself: the sculpture was sold for $12.1 million (including service fees), with a starting price of approximately $10 million.
This time, however, the object will not go to a private collection, but to the entertainment company Ripley's Believe it or Not!
The company, whose history dates back to 1918, is best known for publishing books on contemporary curiosities similar to the Guinness Book of Records and for organising exhibitions of various curiosities.
Cattelan's last high-profile sale was Comedian, the famous banana that crypto businessman Justin Sun first ate and then, in an equally performative gesture, gave the certificate of the work to Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2013 for running a drug trading platform.
Unlike ‘Comedian’, the golden toilet is to be put to public use. Ripley's plans to place it in one of its permanent exhibitions and possibly allow visitors to use it. Let's hope that the toilet stays in place and doesn't end up like its predecessor, which has disappeared without a trace.