America, one of world’s most infamous 18k gold toilets, is set for auction — how much would you pay?

It may be the most famous — or infamous — toilet in the world: a 220-pound, 18-karat solid gold throne created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, which attracted around 100,000 visitors when it first went on display in the bathroom of New York’s Guggenheim Museum in 2016.

Three years later, the artwork — titled “America” — was stolen in a daring five-minute heist from Blenheim Palace, Winston Churchill’s birthplace in Oxfordshire. The thieves, armed with sledgehammers, were convicted earlier this year, but the fully functional toilet was never recovered. It is believed to have been cut up or melted down for its gold, worth millions.

A golden comeback

That was not the end of the story for the satirical sculpture, which was once offered to President Donald Trump after his administration requested a Van Gogh painting from the Guggenheim — an offer that was reportedly ignored.

Cattelan had previously said he created multiple editions of “America,” and now one of them is set to make a flashy return to the art market next month.

Sotheby’s in New York will auction the piece, which has been in private ownership since 2017, on November 18. Ahead of the sale, the golden toilet will be temporarily displayed in the bathroom of Sotheby’s new headquarters for ten days. Visitors, however, will not be allowed to use it.

Worth its weight in gold

Unlike most auctions, the starting bid for “America” will be tied to the current price of gold, which has been reaching record highs. Sotheby’s expects the starting figure to be around $10 million, though the final price will depend on what collectors think it’s worth.

“The starting bid in accordance with the price of gold was really a way to lean into the very essence of the conceptual basis behind the artwork, which is largely to draw attention to the difference between a work’s artistic value, and a work’s inherent material value,” Galperin told CNN.

He described “America” as the “perfect foil” to Cattelan’s other notorious piece, “Comedian” — a banana duct-taped to a wall — which sold for $6.24 million at Sotheby’s last year.

“If ‘Comedian’ was all about the intangibility of value and how we ascribe value to works of art, ‘America’ challenges that a step further by being in so many ways, intrinsically valuable, in a manner that so many works of art are not.”

A satire on value and culture

According to Sotheby’s, “America” serves as both a commentary on art and society and a reflection of American excess. The Guggenheim once described it as an opportunity for “unprecedented intimacy with a work of art.”

Although “America” was originally conceived as an edition of three, the auction house believes this may be the only physical one ever made.

“Cattelan, for his entire career, has critiqued the system,” Galperin told CNN. “Whether it’s the viewers’ experience seeing art in a museum, the way that works of art move through the system, the way that they’re valued, the way that they change hands. All of these concepts are things that artworks so rarely confront head on. His ability to do that and do it in such a legible way and impactful way is part of its success here.”