The London police has charged four men for the theft of an 18-carat gold toilet from Blenheim Palace, an English country mansion where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born. The theft of the toilet valued at 4.8 million pounds (equivalent to around ₹ 50 crore), according to the Associated Press had taken place in 2019, and was part of an art installation intended as a pointed satire about excessive wealth by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan.
The four men, ages 35-39, are accused of burglary and conspiracy to transfer criminal property by the Crown Prosecution Service, which has also authorised criminal charges against them. The accused will appear at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Nov 28.
Though, seven people had been arrested in connection with the theft that happened four years back, no charges were pressed against anybody until Monday. The artwork has still not been found, reported AP.
In 2021, the Thames Valley Police, the investigating team had said that recovering the toilet would be a "challenge.
“Will we ever see that toilet again? Personally I wonder if it’s in the shape of a toilet to be perfectly honest," police and crime commissioner Matthew Barber told the BBC.
"If you have that large amount of gold I think it seems likely that someone has already managed to dispose of it one way or another," he added.
Interestingly, the golden toilet was fully functional before the theft and visitors could use it on prior appointment. The 18th-century building, a UNESCO World Heritage having valuable art and furniture was significantly damaged as the toilet had been connected to the palace’s plumbing system, said police.
Speaking to the outlet, officials at Guggenheim Museum in New York, where the artwork was installed in a bathroom said the toilet was "cast in 18-carat gold."