A solid-gold toilet is set to be installed in one of the UK’s grandest palaces while allowing the general public to use it. The 18-carat gold artwork, “America” by Maurizio Cattelan, made headlines after the Guggenheim offered it to President Donald Trump instead of the Van Gogh painting he requested.
It will be plumbed into a bathroom at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, near the room in which late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was born. The Palace, a Unesco World Heritage Site, is most famous as Churchill’s birthplace and home. Visitors will be able to admire and use the toilet, an experience that will be new even to the Marlborough family who have enjoyed lives of luxury at Blenheim for more than 300 years.
There will be enhanced security, but whether there will be a queuing system or booked slots has yet to be decided. When the artwork was installed in New Yor people queued for about two hours before being allowed in one at a time. Cleaners sanitized the toilet every 15 minutes.
