Cattelan’s Gold Toilet ‘America’ Auction: Art, Wealth, and Politics

Sotheby's auctions Maurizio Cattelan's 'America,' a gold toilet sculpture, estimated at $10M. A commentary on wealth and power, it once graced the Guggenheim. Trump connection adds a layer.

Bidding process for the work– crafted from strong 18-karat gold and modeled after a standard Kohler toilet– will certainly begin at the existing market worth of the gold utilized in the sculpture, approximated at around $10m based on its weight, according to Sotheby’s. Throughout the public auction preview (8-17 November), America will be installed in a bathroom at Sotheby’s brand-new Breuer Building head office. Sotheby’s notes that this variation of America is the only surviving version.

Auction Highlights Cattelan’s ‘America’

One year after Sotheby’s drew worldwide focus with the $6.2 m sale of Maurizo Cattelan’s Comic (2019 )– a banana duct-taped to a wall surface– the public auction and the musician house are set to make a sprinkle again. Sotheby’s will certainly offer a version of the musician’s totally functioning gold commode, America (2016 ), throughout its evening auction of modern art in New York on 18 November.

Interpretations: Wealth, Power, and Trump

Cattelan has actually described the sculpture’s Trump link as “another layer” of significance, including that “it shouldn’t be the just one”. Like Comic, America is often interpreted as a representation on riches and power, satirizing the absurdities of the art market and the well-off patrons that drive it. Following month, among those clients could plunk down a serious wad of cash to take home this single prize.

It could come to be number one on his checklist of all-time public auction results if America goes well past its $10m estimate. If it surpasses its estimate however disappoints the $15.2 m ($17.2 m with fees) brought by Him (2001 )– Cattelan’s hyperrealist sculpture of a small, stooping Adolf Hitler– at a Christie’s sale in New york city in 2016, it will certainly be number two.

Historical Context and Guggenheim Installation

Sotheby’s notes that this version of America is the only enduring edition. Another was installed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, where even more than 100,000 visitors used it throughout its year-long screen.

Created in 2016– the exact same year Donald Trump won his first US presidential political election– the work’s title and gold material have resulted in interpretations attaching it with American politics and extra. Cattelan has said that he did not prepare for Trump’s surge when developing the item; he initially proposed the sculpture in mid-2015, shortly after Trump introduced his candidacy. When the White Home later on requested to borrow Vincent van Gogh’s Landscape With Snow (1888) from the Guggenheim, manager Nancy Spector declined and supplied America instead, a proposition the White Residence did decline.

Bidding process for the job– crafted from strong 18-karat gold and designed after a common Kohler commode– will begin at the current market value of the gold made use of in the sculpture, estimated at around $10m based on its weight, according to Sotheby’s. Throughout the auction preview (8-17 November), America will be set up in a bathroom at Sotheby’s brand-new Breuer Building headquarters.