{"id":15230,"date":"2025-06-14T14:22:51","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T13:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/londonpost.news\/?p=15230"},"modified":"2025-06-14T14:22:51","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T13:22:51","slug":"oxford-court-jails-duo-for-6-4m-blenheim-palace-gold-toilet-theft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/europe\/uk-news\/oxford-court-jails-duo-for-6-4m-blenheim-palace-gold-toilet-theft\/2025\/06\/14\/admin1\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxford court jails duo for $6.4M Blenheim Palace Gold toilet theft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>OXFORD, June 14 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/uk-two-jailed-over-gold-toilet-theft-from-blenheim-palace\/a-72905728\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DW<\/a>) &#8211; An Oxford court sentenced two men to prison on Friday for the 2019 theft of Maurizio Cattelan\u2019s 18-carat solid\u00a0gold toilet sculpture\u00a0from\u00a0Blenheim Palace. The fully functional artwork, titled\u00a0<em>America<\/em>, was valued at \u00a34.75 million ($6.4M) and ripped from its plumbing during a nighttime heist at Winston Churchill\u2019s birthplace.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\">James Sheen, 40, received a\u00a04-year sentence\u00a0consecutive to his existing 19-year term for ATM attacks and museum burglary. Prosecutors identified Sheen as the sledgehammer-wielder who removed the 98kg (216lb) toilet. Michael Jones, 39, was jailed for\u00a027 months\u00a0for conducting reconnaissance \u2013 including test-using the toilet, which he called &#8220;splendid&#8221; \u2013 though the judge noted uncertainty about his direct burglary involvement. The artwork was likely melted down post-theft and remains missing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\">The\u00a0UNESCO World Heritage Site\u00a0suffered \u00a3500k+ in flood damage during the raid. Other gang members were previously sentenced for the audacious\u00a0art heist. Cattelan created the toilet as social commentary on excess; it previously displayed at New York\u2019s\u00a0Guggenheim Museum, where staff famously offered it on loan to\u00a0Donald Trump\u2019s White House in 2017 (an offer declined in favor of a Van Gogh request).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OXFORD, June 14 (DW) &#8211; An Oxford court sentenced two men to prison on Friday for the 2019 theft of Maurizio Cattelan\u2019s 18-carat solid\u00a0gold toilet sculpture\u00a0from\u00a0Blenheim Palace. The fully functional artwork, titled\u00a0America, was valued at \u00a34.75 million ($6.4M) and ripped from its plumbing during a nighttime heist at Winston Churchill\u2019s birthplace. James Sheen, 40, received [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":""},"categories":[2395],"tags":[460,9698,9699],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/gold-to-toilet.png","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15232,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15230\/revisions\/15232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}