2 men jailed for theft of 18-carat, 98kg golden toilet from English palace

You might remember the case of a solid gold toilet that suddenly went missing from a palace in southern England.

The 18-carat toilet was stolen from the Blenheim Palace, a major tourist attraction and Unesco World Heritage Site, in September 2019.

It had been insured for US$6 million (S$7.68 million).

On Jun. 13, two men behind the heist were jailed, reported Reuters.

The heist

The toilet was an artwork by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, titled "America".

Before dawn on Sep. 14, 2019, a group of five men drove two stolen vehicles through locked wooden gates into the palace grounds.

Wielding sledgehammers, they smashed their way in, ripped the 98kg toilet from the wall, and were out of the building in five minutes, reported The Guardian.

The toilet is believed to have been split into smaller pieces and sold off.

None of the gold was ever recovered.

The crude removal of the toilet — which was fully-functioning and plumbed — also caused flooding and damage to the historic palace.

The men

Both men had played important roles in the "bold and brazen heist", the judge said.

The first man, 40-year-old James Sheen, pleaded guilty before trial to burglary.

"You were almost certainly the figure that carried the sledgehammer, on which your DNA was found, and which was used to sever the functioning toilet from its connecting pipes," the judge said of Sheen.

Gold fragments were also found in his clothing, and incriminating messages recovered from his phone, according to BBC.

He was given four years' jail. The sentence will start at the end of a separate, nearly 20-year jail term he is still currently serving for a series of thefts.

The second man, 39-year-old Michael Jones, was found guilty of burglary and sentenced to 27 months' jail.

He had pleaded not guilty.

While it was unclear if Jones was present at the burglary, the judge pointed out that he had twice visited Blenheim Palace in the week leading up to the event.

On one of those occasions, he booked a timeslot on the Blenheim's website to use the gold toilet himself. The experience was "splendid", he told the court.

He also snapped photos of the golden toilet and the look on the door.

"That your role was to carry out a reconnaissance of the museum, to know exactly where the golden toilet was situated and to work out the quickest route in and out of the palace, I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever," the judge said.

Top image from Guggenheim Museum and Thames Valley Police