A gold toilet that fetched $12.1m (£9.3m) at auction was bought by Ripley's Believe It or Not!, after its first casting was stolen from Blenheim Palace in 2019.
America, created by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, is a fully functional toilet made from more than 15st 13lb (101.2kg) of solid 18-carat gold.
The first version of the work was initially installed in a public bathroom at the Guggenheim museum in New York in 2016 but made headlines again three years later when a gang of thieves stole it from the Oxfordshire palace.
The existence of a second golden toilet was later revealed, and it went under the hammer at Sotheby's in New York City on Tuesday, receiving just one bid.
The auction house explained that, in a world first, the starting bid was determined by the exact price of its weight in gold, estimated at about $10m (£7.6m).
While it initially claimed the buyer was a famous American brand, Ripley's later identified themselves as the mystery buyer via an Instagram post, exclaiming, we're flush with excitement.
The entertainment company oversees attractions, including oddity museums and aquariums globally. Notably, it made headlines in 2022 when celebrity Kim Kardashian wore a Marilyn Monroe dress to the Met Gala.
Now, Ripley's is exploring possibilities regarding whether guests might ever be allowed to take the ultimate golden seat. They remarked, Such an opportunity requires serious planning and someone brave enough to ensure everything keeps flowing in the right direction.
The artwork achieved the second highest price for a Cattelan piece at auction—his sculpture of a kneeling Hitler sold for $17.2m (£11.9m) in 2016.
It’s estimated that over 100,000 people used the first installation while it was at the Guggenheim before it moved to Blenheim Palace, where, in the early hours of 14 September 2019, five men smashed their way in, ripped out the £4.8m solid gold installation and fled in a stolen Volkswagen Golf.
The heist and the subsequent trial drew global media attention.
James Sheen, 40, from Oxford, pleaded guilty to burglary and transferring criminal property in 2024, while Michael Jones, 39, was convicted of burglary and both men were jailed earlier this year.
Fred Doe, 36, from Windsor, was also found guilty of conspiracy to transfer criminal property and received a suspended sentence.
Sotheby's disclosed that Cattelan created three toilets in 2016, with the second version once displayed at New York's Breuer Building before it went to auction.
The auction house labeled it a cultural phenomenon and an incisive commentary on the collision of artistic production and commodity value. David Galperin, head of contemporary art at Sotheby's New York, referred to it as Cattelan's tour de force, stating it reflects critical questions about art and the value systems of market and museum institutions.
On the same evening as the toilet's auction, a portrait by Gustav Klimt was sold for $236.4m (£179m), marking a new record for the second most expensive artwork sold at auction.
